Found Safe KY - Kenneth Howard, 22mths, Salyersville, 12 May 2019

She's in pretty bad shape too, she'd tore all to pieces. It's just not knowing what to do. We've searched everywhere we can think of they've had dog teams in here nothings showing up.

When asked about what he thinks happened, Elden said, "yeah, it's just like he disappeared. No sign, no nothing. That's the reason I'm started to think, if we can't find him, somebody's picked him up."

"I want him home safe"; Father offers $5,000 reward for missing Magoffin County toddler

I wanted to highlight this full statement. When I first saw it it wasn't complete and it sounded really bad. This in context sounds much better.

Unless he didn't die from natural causes. That will just prove they were correct that he wasn't wandering around out there.

My first thought was if Dad was "watching" him so Mom could have a day off. Lots of families do that. My Mom only did that her first 2 Mother's Days... when she came home and found me in the street she decided against it the following year.

ALLOWED them to continue?
Um... shouldn't that say BEGGED AND PLEADED for them to continue?
Does that mean the family did NOT allow the others to continue? It's probably just worded badly but I don't like it. Almost makes it sound like the parents don't want the search.
.
A property owner has to give consent for searchers to stay. If they didn’t give consent, the searchers would need to leave.
 
.
A property owner has to give consent for searchers to stay. If they didn’t give consent, the searchers would need to leave.

Totally understand that. The way it's worded makes it sound like the VOLUNTEERS were ALLOWED to stay, but the professionals were not. However I'm sure it's just badly worded.
 
I wonder if the search teams know to look up. If he is a curious active climber, he could be in a tree, even at his young age. My youngest at 13 months, was on top of the fridge in the blink of an eye.
 
I wonder if the search teams know to look up. If he is a curious active climber, he could be in a tree, even at his young age. My youngest at 13 months, was on top of the fridge in the blink of an eye.

Good thought, I would think they would have been looking up a lot due to the steep hillsides etc.

As well as calling his name
 
Beats me why things were stopped -- maybe some idea that didn't "turn out." I think even in this sparsely populated area, people would have continued to search, and others would have joined. Somebody would have to direct them, but that wouldn't have been that big a deal. Even if the search was scattered, some areas would have been covered -- people want to help.
Maybe there was a mix-up with the handing over of the case from the county to KSP.
Volunteers were searching in between the official searches.
 
Terrain around our house is similar to Magoffin County's Gunlock: mountains, lots of trees, cliffs,etc. Right now the underbrush on the mountains is pretty thick. Poison ivy everywhere, weeds almost as tall as my 7 yo daughter. It's not a jungle out there, for sure, but when we take a walk through the woods and mountains, we leave signs of our walk-grass flattened, sticks broken on the ground, etc. If a kid had wandered off, there would be some sign of it, I feel. Things are growing like crazy right now. If the dogs didn't pick anything up then there would probably at least be some physical sign of walking.
If he had walked down to the road and either gotten picked up by someone or if he had been hit by a car, driver panicked, hid him somewhere or taken him to a hospital, I feel sure the dogs would have tracked that.
I hope we'll all be wonderfully surprised at good news, but we've seen bad outcomes (and good ones) before -- we're running out of ideas, be they good or bad.
Where is that little boy?
 
The Mom looks like I'd expect her to look at this point.
I have to agree with you, my sole called "hinky meter" isn't quite hitting me yet. This seriously seems like an accident or a kidnapping. I'm leaning more towards an accident but I do want to know who Dad was talking to when this all took place. From what I've read, this seems like a very close community where everyone knows everyone. Either way, this could very well end up tragic and I pray I'm 100% wrong. IMO
 
Idk it gets fairly steep , and fairly quickly on 3 sides of that hollow area. I'm fairly confident if searchers said they had a hard time even searching that area, a less than 2 yr old toddler was not walking or even climbing up those steep hillsides.

I think their belief is that because of the topography of the 1/2 mile radius and coupled with the scent dogs not finding a trail that he did not infact travel through that area

I think they may now either be searching areas that he may have gotten to based on walking down the driveway and down the road, or they have information to lead them to a specific location

JMO

I wonder if anyone who he is especially fond of, lives nearby? That he may have tried to go visit? I agree, it's a very rugged area, I used to travel through Salyersville fairly often.
 
It is extremely rare to have an amber alert without a description being available of an abductor and vehicle. They are used 99% of the time when someone has seen a child being taken by an abductor, and usually also seen put into a car, or if the abductor is a known person then LE might add in their vehicle details even if they weren't seen putting the child into a car.

A lot of the time amber alerts are custody abductions. Very occasionally an amber alert goes out when the parent claims the child has been abducted, in cases like Maleah's where the parent/stepparent claims they were set upon by strangers who left with the child.

But amber alerts are not supposed to be used for children who have wandered off alone in the woods. The amber alert system wasn't designed for that purpose, it's about abductions, not missing children in general.
Exactly -- this didn't and still doesn't qualify for an Amber. Thanks for explaining why it couldn't be done.
 
I wonder if anyone who he is especially fond of, lives nearby? That he may have tried to go visit? I agree, it's a very rugged area, I used to travel through Salyersville fairly often.

yah Idk its just strange, I'm sure all the neighbors have been checked out?But I have had the same thought

I'm just at the point of hoping for a miracle to be honest
 
Following.
How far could a nearly two year old get by now ?
Have they used search dogs ?
Sorry just started reading. Will go back to the first page now.

Eta : Yes, dogs were used starting Mon. morning.
It wasn't stated if there was a scent leading away from the home.
 
I have to agree with you, my sole called "hinky meter" isn't quite hitting me yet. This seriously seems like an accident or a kidnapping. I'm leaning more towards an accident but I do want to know who Dad was talking to when this all took place. From what I've read, this seems like a very close community where everyone knows everyone. Either way, this could very well end up tragic and I pray I'm 100% wrong. IMO

I've only seen speculation in MSM articles it was Dad's brother, but nothing verified I don't think.
 
The terrain looks very tough to search and easy for a small boy to be well hidden! I would think he couldn’t have gone far and could be injured fairly close by. No sounds from him and dogs not finding a scent is worrisome though. :(
I don’t really know what to think, but I’m so worried for him!
 
MAGOFFIN COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) - Vigils were held in Eastern Kentucky Tuesday night to show support for the family of a missing Magoffin County toddler.

vigil+for+kenneth+howard+web.jpg

Investigators are looking for 22-month-old Kenneth Howard. Search leaders say they were contacted approximately one hour after Howard went missing Sunday night. Kentucky State Police is leading the investigation, and it is being considered a missing person case.

A big crowd gathered at Ramey Memorial Park in Salyersville to lift each other with prayer and song, hoping for the boy's safe return.

"We've all been devastated about it. We've all worried. We've lost sleep."

"A 22-month-old beautiful child somewhere tonight is in some kind of trouble."

Folks also gathered at the Ramada in Paintsville to pray for Kenneth and his family.

"I know the pain I feel inside; I just can't even [begin to] imagine how they're feeling right now."

They want the family to know they have the community's support.

"Whether you're their neighbor or just someone in the community, everyone wants to see this little boy brought home."

"If there's one miracle from God left out there, just please let it be for him."

Pastors at one vigil urged gatherers to pray for Kenneth every hour on the hour until he's found.
People in areas like this usually are very united in celebrations, frightening situations, and sad ones. They know that the next time, it could be their own family. It probably didn't take long for nearly all of them to know about this little boy. It's a shame that so many areas aren't like this anymore. My grandparents lived in an area like this -- I visited them every summer when I was growing up, and even I knew most of them. People like this don't tire -- they would probably stay out looking all night. And prayers, prayers, prayers.
Let's hope they'll all be rejoicing together soon...
 

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