{"id":104141,"date":"2026-01-03T07:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T07:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/104141\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T07:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T07:38:07","slug":"florida-boy-johnathan-boley-found-dead-after-he-went-missing-with-his-dog-in-alabama-on-new-years-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/104141\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida boy Johnathan Boley found dead after he went missing with his dog in Alabama on New Year’s Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"

A missing 4-year-old Florida boy was found dead after he disappeared alongside his dog on New Year\u2019s Eve while visiting his father in Alabama for the holidays.<\/p>\n

Officials recovered the remains of Johnathan Boley on Friday afternoon in a wooded area two miles from home alongside his loyal black Labrador mix Buck, who was found alive at the child\u2019s side after an extensive search that spanned three days, WBRC reported.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is with great sadness that I\u2019m here to announce that we located Johnathan, and Johnathan is deceased,\u201d Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith told reporters Friday.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cLike so many of you across our community, we\u2019re devastated by this news,\u201d Smith said. \u201cJohnathan was an adventurous boy, and he loved the outdoors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The body of Johnathan Boley was found in a wooded area near his father\u2019s Alabama home on Jan. 2, 2025. Alabama Law Enforcement Agency<\/p>\n

Boley, known by his family as \u201cJohn John,\u201d lived in Florida with his mother after his parents separated and was visiting his father in Jasper, Ala. \u2014 roughly 50 miles northwest of Birmingham \u2014 at the time of his disappearance.<\/p>\n

The boy was last seen at his father\u2019s home at around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, when he was playing outside along the fence line with his older brother and the pooch, according to Smith.<\/p>\n

The unidentified sibling said his brother had gone over the fence line with Buck on the 7000 block of Highway 195.<\/p>\n

The boy\u2019s father, Jameson Kyle Boley, reported his son missing just before 12:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Boley\u2019s loyal black Labrador mix Buck was found alive at the child\u2019s side after an extensive search that spanned three days.<\/p>\n

The blond-haired, blue-eyed boy was wearing a yellow Mickey Mouse shirt, black pants and \u201cPaw Patrol\u201d shoes at the time of his disappearance, according to the since-closed Alabama Missing Persons alert.<\/a><\/p>\n

Officials believed Boley was \u201cin danger\u201d and launched a multi-agency search for the missing child.<\/p>\n

The Walker County Sheriff\u2019s Office set out to find Boley over the course of three days with the assistance of the FBI and several local police departments.<\/p>\n

Drones, helicopters, tracking dogs and divers were all used in the multi-day search while dive teams were deployed to a nearby pond.<\/p>\n

The boy was last seen at his father\u2019s home at around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, when he was playing outside along the fence line with his older brother and the pooch.<\/p>\n

Boley\u2019s mother had traveled to Alabama after her son went missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mother did make it in last night from Florida. We have spoken to her and she has cooperated with us to the best of her abilities,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

A cause of death for the boy has not been released.<\/p>\n

Officials called off a ground search near Jameson Boley\u2019s home on Wednesday after finding explosive materials at the house.<\/p>\n

The elder Boley, 40, was arrested and charged with unlawful manufacturing of a destructive device and two counts of chemical endangerment of a child.<\/p>\n

Officials called off a ground search near Jameson Boley\u2019s home on Wednesday after finding explosive materials at the house.<\/p>\n

None of the charges is related to the disappearance and death of Boley, Smith announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe father has been charged. It has nothing to in connection with the missing child, it\u2019s something totally separate, but is still a factor that is hindering our search,\u201d he said at a press conference Wednesday. \u201cWe have a search warrant for the property that they are having to take care of some explosive devices before we can get inside the residence and do a thorough search. There has been evidence of explosive devices on the property.\u201d <\/p>\n

Helpful community members were warned not to assist in the search for Boley because at least eight explosive devices were found on the property.<\/p>\n

Neighbors had reported hearing explosions in the neighborhood, with one report coming at around 4 a.m. the day before Boley went missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe father is prior military. Neighbors have been saying they have been hearing explosions for weeks now, they didn\u2019t really know where it was coming from,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

Smith thanked the \u201chundreds\u201d of volunteers who helped in the search that was hampered by poor weather and tough terrain.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvestigators, and volunteers have\u2026 man, you guys have been awesome searching for Johnathan the last two days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A missing 4-year-old Florida boy was found dead after he disappeared alongside his dog on New Year\u2019s Eve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8173,4864,10822,28,30,29,32200,4278],"class_list":{"0":"post-104141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-alabama","9":"tag-arrests","10":"tag-deaths","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-missing-children","15":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}