The body of a young, half naked boy discovered in bushes at the rear of D. W. Davis Junior High School on Saturday is believed to be that of Devon Arthur Knowles Jr., according to Chief Superintendent of Police Hulan Hanna.<\/P><\/p>\n
Affectionately known as \uff91DJ\uffb4, the nine-year-old was reportedly last seen by relatives last Wednesday. <\/P><\/p>\n
Mr. Hanna was unable, however, to say definitively that the body was that of the missing boy.<\/P><\/p>\n
The boy\uffb4s murder and the reported disappearance of two other boys have some people extremely concerned as the murders of five boys on Grand Bahama last year still remain fresh in the minds of many. \uffa0<\/P><\/p>\n
Mr. Hanna said Sunday that police are treating the gruesome discovery on Saturday as the country\uffb4s 16th murder for the year and police were following \uff93positive leads\uff92 in connection with the matter.<\/P><\/p>\n
The youngster was found lying face down in bushes north of Rolle\uffb4s Avenue around 1:15 p.m., according to police.<\/P><\/p>\n
A group of concerned residents searching for the boy stumbled across the body in the bushy area between Top\uffb4s Lumberyard and St. George\uffb4s Park, Mr. Hanna said.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93At the time of the incident, there was a blue jean pants near the body. \uffa0Other than that, he was clad in a white undershirt. \uffa0One foot of black slippers was found nearby,\uff92 he added.<\/P><\/p>\n
Devon\uffb4s mysterious disappearance had left family members distraught and police officials puzzled. <\/P><\/p>\n
According to a family member, the boy left home around 6 o\uffb4clock on the morning of June 23 to attend basketball practice.<\/P><\/p>\n
His grand mother, Lynette Bowleg, told the Journal late last week that he was an honour roll student at Dandy Lion\uffb4s Pre & Primary School. <\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93It\uffb4s a real strange situation for us because this is not in his character. He is not a child that would just get up and walk out of the house,\uff92 she said. \uff93I can\uffb4t understand why anyone would want to do something to such a small child.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Meanwhile, police are searching for the two other boys who were reported missing by their guardian on Saturday night.<\/P><\/p>\n
At about 9:15 pm, police received a missing persons report from Alteus Raymond, the guardian of Stephen Deles, 10, and Dario Joseph, 8. \uffa0<\/P><\/p>\n
According to Mr. Raymond, the boys left their Major\uffb4s Subdivision home, off Collin\uffb4s Avenue on Friday at 10 am \uffa0Mr. Raymond said he has not seen or heard from the boys since.<\/P><\/p>\n
Mr. Hanna said police are concerned that Mr. Raymond took almost two days before reporting the boys missing. \uffa0\uffa0<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93Police are not certain at this point why this man would have taken so long to report that these two children went missing from Friday morning,\uff92 he said.<\/P><\/p>\n
Mr. Hanna said the boys are living with Mr. Raymond, a relative, as their mother died while in Haiti and their father is reportedly paralyzed. \uffa0<\/P><\/p>\n
Mr. Hanna also sent a stern warning to parents to be aware of their children\uffb4s whereabouts at all times, particularly during school breaks.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93Children being who they are would gravitate to open spaces and bushy areas where the boys would probably play hide-and-seek or even relieve themselves,\uff92 he said. \uff93We want to advise parents to be extremely cautious. \uffa0Parents need to take their responsibilities seriously.\uff92 <\/P><\/p>\n
Mr. Hanna said children should be left supervised by a responsible adult. \uffa0<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93Parents should know where these children are and whose company they are in\uff85to leave children home alone who are underage is inviting problems,\uff92 he said. \uff93You\uffb4re looking at fires, children wondering from home and getting into mischief or some twisted-minded adult molesting these children.\uff92 \uffa0<\/P><\/p>\n
Hadassah Hall and Rogan Smith, The Bahama Journal<\/B><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Police are treating the gruesome discovery on Saturday as the country\uffb4s 16th murder for the year and police were following positive leads in connection with the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}