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<\/p>\nPolice, who have not released the boy\u2019s last name, strongly believe the remains to be Parker, but have not confirmed the identity.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
They said it appears Parker, who had autism and was non-verbal, wandered into a culvert then deeper into the pipes wearing all of the clothing he was last seen in, but lost articles as he moved further into the system. Officers searched the area after receiving a tip that the boy\u2019s shoe had been found nearby.<\/p>\n
The discovery was made Wednesday afternoon at about 2:30 p.m., with the child located in a narrow concrete pipe on the east side of the expressway, about 135 to 150 metres inside the pipe system.<\/p>\n
Lee Wayne, a Calgary police inspector with the major crimes division, said investigators had never ruled out foul play, but there is no evidence that suggests wrongdoing. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe remain open to that,\u201d Wayne said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs it stands, we are still believing that this is simply a case of misadventure with no criminality involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sgt. Rich Wall, who managed the search, was at the scene when the body was located.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very sad and we are very deflated in the fact that we couldn\u2019t find him alive, but relieved that we\u2019ve brought him home,\u201d said Wall.<\/p>\n
Wall said the area and the nearby creek had all been searched, but it was his clothing that flowed into the creek that led searchers into the tunnels of pipes.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear how long the child was inside, but Wall said it was likely \u201cquite some time.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the aquatic team that entered into the maze of pipes encountered unsafe gas build-ups on their way through, forcing them to try another entrance before he was found.<\/p>\n
Parker disappeared after he walked away from his daycare home on July 16.<\/p>\n
Soon after, a massive search galvanized the city, with hundreds of officers and volunteers scouring city blocks, homes, sheds, garages, boats and under patio decks.<\/p>\n
They searched from the air, on mountain bikes and used police dogs and knocked on hundreds of doors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been working on this from the initial outset. The core team of investigators haven\u2019t stopped,\u201d said Wayne.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been at work 15, 18 hours a day for the last, is it 12 days?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so we always held that little piece of hope and today is a sombre day.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also used information from Parker\u2019s family about his interests and behaviours to guide search efforts. For example, officers played some of Parker\u2019s favourite Disney songs from patrol vehicles to try to draw him out.<\/p>\n
The search was complicated by Parker\u2019s neurological condition. Police cautioned that he could become more scared if confronted by strangers.<\/p>\n
The day he disappeared, articles of clothing believed to belong to Parker were found near his day home. He was also captured on CCTV footage without a shirt and wearing black noise-cancelling headphones.<\/p>\n
Early in the search, Parker\u2019s family issued a statement describing him as a \u201cloved son, brother and friend.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cOur family is heartbroken by his disappearance. Since he went missing, our family has been living every parent\u2019s worst nightmare,\u201d the family statement said. \u201cEvery hour that passes without knowing where he is or whether he is safe has been incredibly difficult for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The search elicited an outpouring of support but also exposed problems with public participation in the age of social media.<\/p>\n
Police, wading through hundreds of tips, said they were slowed down by altered images and videos created with artificial intelligence claiming to show Parker or provide information about his whereabouts. One false report said the boy had been found dead and a fraudulent GoFundMe page was also created.<\/p>\n
The search also raised questions about how to alert the public when vulnerable children disappear. Amber Alerts are currently broadcast for children abducted and in serious danger.<\/p>\n
In Parker\u2019s case, an Amber Alert was issued as a special exemption on the second day of the search.<\/p>\n
A group of mothers have started petitions to urge officials to launch similar broad outreach emergency messages for categories that include neurodivergent children. <\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 29, 2026.<\/p>\n
Dayne Patterson and Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police, who have not released the boy\u2019s last name, strongly believe the remains to be Parker, but have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":["post-835052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}