Missing Utah toddler found dead
2-year-old boy's father to take lie-detector test
SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 1 — Searchers have found the body of a toddler who disappeared after his father left him in a truck while he checked out a hunting area in the mountains of northern Utah.
The boy’s father, Paul Wayment, 37, said he left his son, dressed in pajamas and strapped in a car seat, in his truck last week while he scouted for deer in the area.
RICK BURKE, THE uncle of 2-year-old Gage Wayment, said he received a call early Wednesday morning from the sheriff's office saying the body had been found.
Sheriff's dispatcher Neil Simmons confirmed the body was found but gave no details.
The boy's father, Paul Wayment, 37, said he left his son, dressed in pajamas and strapped in a car seat, in his truck last week while he scouted for deer in the area. He said he locked the doors and took the keys with him. When he returned about 40 minutes later, the boy was gone.
OFFICIAL SEARCH ENDED SUNDAY
The official search for the boy was called off Sunday, but volunteers continued looking for the boy. Late Tuesday, a volunteer searcher reported finding the body and Summit County deputies rushed to the scene.
Sheriff's investigator Robert Berry said the volunteer had called and said he had become lost, spent Monday night in the mountains and while making his way out, came across the boy's body.
Becky Taylor, a volunteer who said she encountered the man Tuesday while she was looking for her dog, said the man told her he had carried the boy's body for hours and finally had to put it down. Taylor said she and other volunteers searched with the man, trying to retrace his route, before the sheriff's office was called.
ABDUCTION RULED OUT
Investigators on Tuesday determined the boy was probably not abducted after interviewing two hunters who were in the area when he disappeared Thursday. The hunting area is private and accessible only through a gate with a combination lock.
"They said there was no one else in that area at the time," Berry said.
Wayment has been questioned twice and investigators had said he was to meet with them again Wednesday to take a lie-detector test.
"We are not referring to him as a suspect yet," Berry said.
Wayment was awarded temporary custody of the boy in late June, and a review hearing was to have been held within the next two months. Wayment's ex-wife, Brenda Harrison, 38, was stripped in June of custody of all six of her children from four marriages.
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