Missing: Luis Martinez age 2 Hillsborough County FL (BODY FOUND)

[dsntslp]

http://www.cfnews13.com/News/CountyByCounty/CountyStories/2009/11/27/missing_toddler_sought_in_hillsborough_county.html

[trimmonthelake]

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/nov/28/280836/authorities-resume-search-missing-2-year-old-boy/
Volunteers join deputies to search for missing toddler in Valrico

Luis Martinez was last seen wearing a blue-and-white striped shirt with a tiger logo, red pants and sandals.
TBO.com

Published: November 28, 2009

Updated: 19 min. ago



Teams of volunteers are helping deputies search for a missing 2-year-old boy in Valrico.

At daybreak today, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's office resumed the search for Luis Martinez.

The boy was reported missing by his parents at around 3 p.m. Friday. He was last seen playing at a neighbor's home on Silver Lane, south of State Road 60 and off Mulrennan Road.

About 40 volunteers, split into groups of five, moved out to search for the boy at 8:30 this morning. They're concentrating on a heavily-wooded area between State Road 60 and a set of railroad tracks. Authorities are also searching a lake and a reservoir nearby.

Deputies, along with agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, will also resume interviews today with area residents for any information on the boy.

Late Friday, dozens of residents grabbed flashlights to help search the dense woods and other areas.

The sheriff's office conducted a reverse-911 call to alert neighbors in a 5-mile radius about the missing child and began contacting all the registered sexual offenders in the area.

Spanish-speaking deputies were brought in to interview the parents, who are cooperating with investigators, the sheriff's office said.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued a missing child alert at about 7:30 p.m.

Luis was last seen wearing a blue-and-white striped shirt with a tiger logo, red pants and sandals.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Luis is asked to call 911 or the Sheriff's Office at 247-8200.

[tupelohoney]

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/nov/28/280836/authorities-resume-search-missing-2-year-old-boy/news-breaking/

Volunteers join deputies to search for missing toddler in Valrico



Published: November 28, 2009
Updated: 25 min. ago

Teams of volunteers are helping deputies search for a missing 2-year-old boy in Valrico.

At daybreak today, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's office resumed the search for Luis Martinez.

The boy was reported missing by his parents at around 3 p.m. Friday. He was last seen playing at a neighbor's home on Silver Lane, south of State Road 60 and off Mulrennan Road.

About 40 volunteers, split into groups of five, moved out to search for the boy at 8:30 this morning. They're concentrating on a heavily-wooded area between State Road 60 and a set of railroad tracks. Authorities are also searching a lake and a reservoir nearby.

Deputies, along with agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, will also resume interviews today with area residents for any information on the boy.

Late Friday, dozens of residents grabbed flashlights to help search the dense woods and other areas.

The sheriff's office conducted a reverse-911 call to alert neighbors in a 5-mile radius about the missing child and began contacting all the registered sexual offenders in the area.

Spanish-speaking deputies were brought in to interview the parents, who are cooperating with investigators, the sheriff's office said.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued a missing child alert at about 7:30 p.m.

Luis was last seen wearing a blue-and-white striped shirt with a tiger logo, red pants and sandals.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Luis is asked to call 911 or the Sheriff's Office at 247-8200.

[tupelohoney]

Here we go again Trimm    

[Nut44x4]

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&LanguageCountry=en_US&searchLang=en_US&caseLang=en_US&orgPrefix=NCMC&caseNum=1136265&seqNum=1

[tupelohoney]

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/nov/28/281111/authorities-resume-search-missing-2-year-old-boy/news-breaking/

Volunteers in missing boy search asked to return after lunch

Published: November 28, 2009
Updated: 11 min. ago

Teams of volunteers are helping deputies search for a missing 2-year-old boy in Valrico.

At daybreak today, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's office resumed the search for Luis Martinez.

The boy was reported missing by his parents at around 3 p.m. Friday. He was last seen playing at a neighbor's home in a mobile home park on Silver Lane, south of State Road 60 and off Mulrennan Road.

More than 200 volunteers and 60 law enforcement officers are searching for the boy this morning. As more volunteers arrived, the sheriff's office asked some to return after lunch.

The search teams are concentrating on a heavily-wooded area between State Road 60 and a set of railroad tracks, many of them using long sticks or plastic piping to probe the undergrowth. Authorities are also searching a lake and a retention pond nearby.

The sheriff's office is using dogs, horses, and helicopters in the search for the boy.

Deputies, along with agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, also resumed interviews today with area residents for any information on the boy.

Late Friday, dozens of residents grabbed flashlights to help search the dense woods and other areas. Many of them returned this morning.

"I heard the helicopter going about 3:30 or 4 o'clock yesterday. I knew something was up," said Ed Kirkland, who was one of the first people placed on a search crew this morning.

Burt Urquiza and Kyle McGinty also saw the helicopter overhead yesterday and joined the search effort. "I was surprised by the number of people out there at midnight," Urquiza said. "God willing, we can help this little baby."

McGinty has a 7-year-old son named Rodney. He understands that moment of panic when you can't find your child. "Even two seconds and you're freaking out," he said.

Nicole Prater, who is on vacation from Vienna, Austria, brought her dog, Shadow, to help with the search. Prater said her dog, a border collie mix, is trained to search for missing people. She heard about the missing boy from news reports.

On Friday, the sheriff's office conducted a reverse-911 call to alert neighbors in a 5-mile radius about the missing child and began contacting all the registered sexual offenders in the area.

Spanish-speaking deputies were brought in to interview the parents, who are cooperating with investigators, the sheriff's office said.

FDLE issued a missing child alert at about 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Luis was last seen wearing a blue-and-white striped shirt with a tiger logo, red pants and sandals.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Luis is asked to call 911 or the sheriff's office at 247-8200.

[tupelohoney]

Here's a map of the area:   http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Silver+Lane&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hl=en&hq=&hnear=Silver+Ln,+Valrico,+Hillsborough,+Florida+33594&ll=27.943763,-82.228031&spn=0.010787,0.022724&z=14&iwloc=A&source=embed

[dsntslp]

Thank you for the interactive map link Tupelo.

I hope that pool that was so green when the picture was taken is not green now and if it is I hope it has been searched.

After the Frances and Jeanne hurricanes here I spent months treating pools in my neighborhood with chlorine tabs.  Owners abandoned their homes and I just could not stand to see those green/black pools. A lot of the homehowners fences were down.  We even repaired the ones we could without spending too much.  There is absolutely no way to see the bottom of them when they are like that.  The only way one would find a child is to dive them and that would carry a lot of health risks.  Hubby did not understand at first.  He said "They are not our pools, why do we care?"  Now he understands.  It wasn't about helping homeowners it was about finding children who may have fallen in.  I also used the chlorine tabs to thrown on the ground where the sewer system ran over.  I had to post signs for people not to walk their dogs through the treated water as the chlorine burns the skin.  They shouldn't be walking them through that mess anyway.  Ooops, way off topic here.  Apologies.  It just irritates me to no end to see green/black pools.

[dsntslp]

Toddlers Body May Have Been Found in Septic Tank:

http://brandonnews2.tbo.com/content/2009/nov/28/281342/authorities-resume-search-missing-2-year-old-boy/

[dsntslp]

CFNews13.com

Missing Toddler Found Dead Near Home
Saturday, November 28, 2009 2:19:56 PM

http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2009/11/28/missing_toddler_found_dead_near_home.html

[dsntslp]

Off to go get some work done with my anger, constructive and all. Mad at parents who do not cherish and care for their children properly and also mad at whoever left the lid off, and even madder that the parents will sue the homeowner or park owner and will probably get money for their own stupidity.  IMO  Outta' here for a while, hugs, later, Dsn

[cece]

So sad.  Another little innocent gone.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/missing-boys-body-found-in-valrico/1054875

Missing boy's body found in Valrico

By Jessica Vander Velde and William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writers
In Print: Saturday, November 28, 2009

VALRICO –– A missing 2-year-old Valrico was found dead in a septic tank, Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee said Saturday afternoon.

Luis Martinez was located after someone who lives in the area called authorities and suggested that they check the septic tank, Gee said. The septic tank is located a short distance from a neighbor's home where Luis was last seen asking for ice cream on Friday afternoon.

"By all indications, it looks like the child fell into the septic tank," Gee said.

Investigators were awaiting the arrival of the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office as well as heavy equipment needed to excavate the septic tank. The tank has an 11-inch opening at the top and its lid had been removed for some time, the Sheriff's Office said.

A gasp rose from the crowd of about 100 volunteer searchers and law enforcement officials when Gee said the boy had been found in the tank. Many of the volunteers immediately began crying, shaking and hugging.

Gee said authorities searched the area where Luis was found earlier Saturday and saw a small hole, but it was unclear that it led to a septic tank. The septic tank was covered by grass that may have been there for weeks or months, Gee said.

Earlier Saturday, hundreds of volunteers and sheriff's deputies fanned out to continue the search for Luis. Luis Martinez disappeared from his Silver Lane neighborhood off Mulrennan Road. He was last seen asking a neighbor for ice cream.

By late Saturday morning, the search area had grown to a 1.5-mile radius around the boy's mobile home park, sheriff's Col. Greg Brown said. Volunteer searchers were being turned away from the site on Silver Lane off Mulrennan Road because there were no more sheriff's deputies to help guide them.

Brown said the boy was known to wander the neighborhood.

"I understand he travels around the mobile home park quite a bit," Brown said.

The search that began at daybreak Saturday was both methodical and frustrating. Deputies carried detailed maps to mark their progress, but the search parties were sometimes hindered by fences and retention ponds. Groups searched areas along State Road 60 and areas off Mulrennan Road as well as the Strawberry Ridge Mobile Home Park.

A total of 60 law enforcement officers were joined by about 150 volunteers early Saturday morning. Searchers concentrated their efforts in a one-mile radius of the boy's home. Civilian volunteers were kept away from the area closest to the family's mobile home as a routine precaution because it is considered a potential crime scene. A dive team was en route to the area, which has a number of ponds and retention basins.

Pete Feuerlein was walking his dog early Saturday morning when he saw a neighbor leaving. The neighbor remarked that he was going to search for the little boy, and Feuerlein didn't hesitate to join in.

By mid-morning Saturday, he was with a group of about 20 searchers being led by a sheriff's deputy. His eyes scanned the thicket along Mulrennan Road as he walked toward a retention pond.

"A 2-year-old would fit into about anything," said Feuerlein, who is retired from the Navy and has an 8-year-old grandson.

Deputies interviewed the boy's parents Friday but have not released their names. Brown could not say if Luis was being supervised by an adult when he disappeared.

Luis has a 2-month-old sister and often plays in a grassy area in front of the mobile home, his uncle, Jose Manual Martinez, said Saturday. The family's home sits amid a cluster of a dozen mobile and manufactured homes in the 4100 block of Silver Lane.

Brown said deputies, assisted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, had no reason to believe Luis was abducted, though deputies have not ruled it out. As of noon Saturday, no Amber Alert was issued because the case didn't meet criteria that include clear evidence of an abduction, sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway said. A missing-child alert was issued.

[Nut44x4]

Valrico mobile home park where toddler died lacks migrant camp permit, officials say

Posted: Dec 01, 2009 07:13 PM

VALRICO — The mobile home park where a toddler was found dead in a septic tank lacks a permit to operate as a migrant labor camp, officials said Tuesday.

The Silver Lane Mobile Home Park is mostly home to migrant farm workers. That means it is required to be inspected more frequently and closely during the growing season than regular mobile home parks are, an official said.

The additional inspections are meant to ensure that parks where farm workers live are healthy and safe. The Hillsborough County Health Department begins those inspections over the summer, before farm workers arrive to pick winter crops.

But could they have prevented a tragedy? If the park had been properly permitted, would inspectors have caught the uncovered septic tank where the body of 2-year-old Luis Martinez was found Saturday?

"We don't know," Health Department environmental supervisor Gregg Rottler said. "Who could know that?"

On Tuesday, however, Rottler told Silver Lane Mobile Home Park owner Kenneth Winter to apply for a migrant housing permit for both the parks, one on each side of Silver Lane, owned by his company, Silver Lane LLC.

Juan Martinez, Luis Martinez's father, told the Times Sunday he picks strawberries here and blueberries in Michigan. A resident of the park, where many of the vehicles have South Carolina or Tennessee tags, told officials that many residents are migrant farm workers who come to pick crops.

At the second park, on the other side of Silver Lane, most residents are migrants, Winter told officials.

Winter, 52, who lives in Dover, did not respond to an e-mail or several telephone messages Tuesday from the Times. But talking to officials, "he mentioned what occurred was a tragedy," Rottler said.

Once permitted as a migrant labor camp, Silver Lane would be inspected twice each quarter during the growing season. By comparison, regular mobile home parks are inspected twice a year.

Plus, unlike regular mobile home parks, Health Department inspectors look inside the mobile homes themselves at migrant camps.

At the migrant camps, the inspectors set a limit on the number of people who can live in each unit based on the available living space, Rottler said. They also look for holes in the walls and floors, leaky plumbing, roof leaks, roach and rat infestations and the provision of sufficient lighting, and hot and cold water.

Rottler gave Winter 30 days to address problems identified at the park and get the proper permit, though officials can give him more time if he is working on complying.

"Our goal is to secure compliance to ensure that people live in healthy and safe housing," Rottler said.

If a migrant camp owner balked at getting the proper permit or did not correct violations found in an inspection, he or she could be fined up to $500 a day for each day the violations continued.

On Monday, county code enforcement inspectors swept through both parks owned by Silver Lane LLC and found a second improperly secured septic tank.

On Tuesday, code enforcement investigator William Langford gave Winter notices to correct septic and electrical problems at both parks within 24 hours. If he does not, the county could take the case to the Code Enforcement Board, which can assess fines of up to $1,000 for each day that the violations continue.

"It appears at this time that his goal is to reach compliance," Langford said.

A sheriff's investigation into the incident is trying to determine whether it was an accident and whether there was criminal negligence on anyone's part in the boy's death, said Major Harold Winsett, the sheriff's division commander for criminal investigations.

"It appears that this is an accident, although the guys have not completed (the investigation) yet," Winsett said. It's too soon to say whether any charges might be filed, he said.

Richard Danielson can be reached at Danielson@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3403.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/accidents/valrico-mobile-home-park-where-toddler-died-lacks-migrant-camp-permit/1055698

[cookie]

a 2 yr old is allowed to roam the neighborhood??? come on...

some parents are so irresponsible and the child pays the price for it!! grrrrr....

[MuffyBee]

a 2 yr old is allowed to roam the neighborhood??? come on...

some parents are so irresponsible and the child pays the price for it!! grrrrr....

   Poor little child was neglected by his parents. 

[cookie]

why do people keep having children that they don't really want or at least that they don't want to parent?
I see it all the time at shopping centers for instance....parents have 3 or 4 little ones, who look to be not even a yr apart...snotty noses, ragmuffin clothes on, crying cause they are hungry or tired...little ones who should be in a stroller are forced to walk cause there are 2 other littler ones taking up the room in the cart...then he gets yelled at when he cries cause he is tired...if they treat these kids so badly in public, what is the treatment like at home behind closed doors? the parents get a stare down from me..not that they care...grrrrrrr

the parents of this little boy should not get to keep the other baby unless they have some serious longterm parenting classes...imo....He should have been in the house where he belongs instead of being allowed to roam the trailer park at 2 yrs old!!!