Missing 5-year-old boy found dead in dumpster; Milwaukee police investigate as homicide
Milwaukee police have opened a homicide investigation after a 5-year-old boy reported missing Wednesday was found dead in a dumpster Thursday.
Police have taken two “persons of interest” into custody – a 27-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy.
Prince McCree of Milwaukee was last seen Wednesday morning at his home, on the 2400 block of North 54th Street, according to police and neighbors. His body was found just before 9 a.m. Thursday about a mile south, on the 5500 block of West Vliet Street, Milwaukee police said.
A cause of death is under investigation.
State Sen. LaTonya Johnson, a neighbor of the family, said Prince’s parents were knocking door-to-door in search of him into the night Wednesday. She said the two persons of interest live in the same home, but she was unsure of their relation to the family.
“They were distraught,” Johnson said of the family. “It was a shock. This neighborhood is relatively quiet. You don’t see a lot of police activity. We knew it was something serious.”
It was not immediately clear what circumstances led up to Prince going missing. A neighbor, who only identified himself as Riley and a member of the area’s neighborhood block watch, said Prince was seen playing with other kids Wednesday morning.
Prince was last seen alive at 9 a.m. inside his home by his mother, according to an alert from Milwaukee police. He was discovered missing around 1 p.m.
Police issued a "critically missing" alert about Prince at about 8:30 p.m. Critically missing alerts are sent out to media outlets to notify the public about a missing person who may be in immediate danger for a variety of reasons. Children age 11 or younger are automatically considered critically missing under Milwaukee police policy.
An Amber Alert, which would have sent an alert to cell phone users in the area, was not issued. Johnson said that was because law enforcement did not have enough information about a suspect or a suspect vehicle.
Amber Alerts require specific criteria to be met before being issued, including having sufficient “information about the child, suspect or vehicle to believe an immediate broadcast would help in locating the child,” according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
“It’s sad for the family,” she said. “He’s a 5-year-old baby. They’re struggling.”
Johnson said the family includes two parents and three children. She had little contact with them prior to Wednesday but said she had seen them walk to a corner store on occasion.
“They’ve always been respectful,” she said. “They’re quiet.”
Ald. Michael Murphy, who represents the neighborhood, said the city would be traumatized by Prince’s death.
“It’s a terrible tragedy for the whole community to see another child so senselessly lose their life and then to be discarded in the manner in which they found the child,” he said.
Murphy said he had not been told how the child died. He referred questions about the connections between the two people arrested and the child to police.
Prince’s death comes within weeks after 12-year-old Jacarie Robinson was found dead in his home on the city’s northwest side. His body was found malnourished and in an advanced state of decomposition.
His father, 45-year-old Ramuan Moye, has been charged with four felonies in connection to the death.
More: Who gets an Amber Alert in Wisconsin? Here’s what the data showed
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee police find Prince McCree, 5, dead in search for missing boy
