The mother of Kaden Young is thanking everyone who helped search for her son, noting the search “has finally come to an end.”
“The amount of support was absolutely incredible and we really can’t thank everyone enough,” Michelle Hansen wrote in a Facebook post on April 22.
The previous day police reported the body of a “young person” was found underneath the north side of the Belwood bridge.
OPP officials would not initially confirm the identity, but many people involved in the search for Young, including Hansen and other family members, were gathered at the scene.
The Belwood bridge is about 11km downstream from where Young was swept into the Grand River two months ago.
The body was discovered by a fisherman at 3pm on April 21. Three days later the OPP stated an autopsy confirmed it was in fact the body of the missing three-year-old.
Dufferin OPP Constable Paul Nancekivell said the fisherman who discovered the body on Saturday immediately called police.
Both Wellington County and Dufferin County OPP responded “because we have a missing boy in our area,” Nancekivell said.
The boy’s body was taken to the coroner’s office in Toronto for an autopsy.
OPP shut down Wellington Road 26 for about four hours on Saturday for the investigation. Victim Services from both Wellington and Dufferin Counties were on scene to assist the young male fisherman who discovered the body.
“It’s been a long process for people searching down here. We’re hopeful this is who we’re looking for,” Nancekivell said on Saturday afternoon.
The search for Young has been ongoing since his February disappearance, with hundreds of volunteers and the police taking part.
Nancekivill said OPP divers were in Belwood on Friday but could not enter the water due to the ice. He added the OPP helicopter had been searching the Grand River at least once a week.
“It has been a long, extremely draining two months of searching and now (it) has finally come to an end,” Hansen later wrote on Facebook.
She thanked everyone who helped search for her son and added funeral arrangements would be finalized later in the week.
Young went missing on Feb. 21 after Hansen lost hold of the boy when the vehicle they were in was swept into the Grand River by fast-moving flood waters on the 10th Line near Waldemar.
A significant amount of rainfall between Feb. 19 and 22 closed roads and caused flooding along the Grand River.
A candlelight vigil in memory of Young was scheduled to be held on April 25 at the Belwood bridge on Wellington Road 26.
– With files from Chris Daponte
