Nov. 11--Police are searching for a person of interest wanted for questioning in connection with the disappearance of a 2-year-old boy whose remains were found in September at the Garfield Park Lagoon, Chicago police said Wednesday.
The foot of a toddler was found in the lagoon Sept. 5. Additional remains, including the head, were found over the next two days. The torso is still missing, officials said.
Early this month officials said DNA from the remains matched DNA from Lanisha Knox, 24, whose 2-year-old son Kyrian had been missing from Rockford in August but was not reported missing until September.
The boy's mother and other family members said Lanisha Knox had moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with a high school friend who also has a young child.
The women left Kyrian and the other child in the care of the high school friend's father, who lives in Rockford, according to family. Knox called the Rockford man to check on Kyrian routinely but did not speak with the child on the phone, according to the family.
Chicago police, which are heading the investigation, are searching for a person of interest to question him in the case, said Anthony Guglielmi, a police spokesman.
The man they are seeking is known to the family, Guglielmi said.
The boy was reported missing in September, after the remains were found in the lagoon. But police have said the boy apparently disappeared sometime in August and the family did not go to authorities until weeks later.
Chicago police are still awaiting results from the Cook County medical examiner's office to determine how the boy died, Guglielmi said.
The Rev. Ira Acree, a community activist, said earlier that each step in the case forces people to confront the trauma all over again.
"One thing we all do know is that this child under no circumstances should have ever experienced anything like this," Acree said recently. "This child should have never met this fate. His life's end was unconscionable and barbaric because of how his body ended up mutilated. I'm hoping the person behind this crime gets arrested, convicted and punished with the most severe penalties."
