Police are investigating the death of a 12-year-old boy after search and rescue crews pulled his body from a pond on Monday. This comes just days after someone sent the 12-year-old boy's parents a ransom demand.
12-year-old Juan Sebastian Mejia Acevedo is dead, and authorities are still not quite sure what happened to him. They found the boy's body in a local pond in Virginia Beach. According to CBS 6 Richmond, his parents reported him missing after the 12-year-old didn't come home from a friend's house. A few hours later, someone sent the parents a ransom demand during a Facebook Live. Alleged kidnappers wanted $500 for the boy's return but never replied back.
Shortly after, police issued an AMBER alert for the boy.
12-Year-Old Dies
However, police now believe the ransom demand was a scammer looking to capitalize on the family during one of their worst moments.
"This would not be the first time that that type of scam has been perpetuated on a family that is going through difficult circumstances," Virginia Beach Police Chief Paul Neudigate said. "Is that a possibility? It absolutely is.
"Unfortunately, because it involved out-of-state transactions, we need search warrants, subpoenas, to try to identify who that individual was who received that money," the chief said.
They're still investigating the matter. Acevedo's body hasn't left much visible clues. Authorities will be performing an autopsy on the 12-year-old. However, right now, the investigation is wide open. Police don't know if the case will turn into a homicide investigation or if it was an accidental drowning.
Either is a possibility right now. The police chief discourages speculation at this time until they can confirm the facts of the case. The first thing is sending the 12-year-old boy's body to the medical examiner. They will determine a cause of death.
"It's too early for me to speculate," Neudigate said. "We just recovered him. As we get more information and we can confirm facts — and not what we believe occurred — we will get that out to the community."
"We had no specific indication that these ponds were an area of interest, but we did not want to leave any stone unturned."
