Search for missing three-year-old boy

Three-year-old Noah Woods, who is partially deaf and non-verbal, disappeared from a playground in Brantham, Suffolk on the afternoon of September 15 after becoming separated from a relative near a newbuild housing estate; he was last seen wearing a white Bluey T-shirt and black Vans trainers. More than 1,300 volunteers joined police, helicopters, drones and dog units in an overnight search across the area near the River Stour estuary, with searches later widening into neighboring Essex villages, and Suffolk Police repeatedly asked the public to coordinate with officers rather than search independently.

Police later confirmed that a child's body had been recovered by dive teams from a pond roughly 350 yards from the playground; formal identification had not yet taken place at the time of the announcement, though officers said Noah's family had been informed and the death was being treated as unexplained but not suspicious. Suffolk Police's Supt Tom Pearse thanked the community for an outpouring of support that saw volunteers travel from as far as Birmingham and Hampshire to help in the search.