A massive search for a missing 18-month-old Idaho boy concluded in a heartbreaking discovery on Wednesday, Aug. 2.
A search party found the body of Mason Cunningham at 9 a.m. in Ten Mile Canal about 4 miles downstream from his home, KTVB reported.
Little Mason went missing on Tuesday. He was with a relative outside his home when the relative went around the house to turn on a sprinkler. Mason was gone when the relative returned a few minutes later.
“A search began by the parents of the local area around the house, and after determining he wasn’t necessarily on the property, the father believed he may have been in the canal, which is near the property,” Canyon County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Bill Adams said.
In a frantic attempt to find the boy, his father jumped into the canal and was swept off by the current. The father was pulled to safety several blocks downstream, Canyon County Sheriff officials said.
The canal is fenced off from the backyard, but not from the front yard. Although the death is still under investigation, police believe the boy wandered into the canal and was carried away by the rapid stream.
Mason was last seen in the front yard of his Nampa, Idaho, home at about 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The house is in the 6800 block of Ustick Road.
