El Paso County Sheriff’s Office(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.) — Authorities in Colorado continue to search for an 11-year-old boy who has been missing since Jan. 27 as more than 100 tips have flowed in to assist them.
Gannon Stauch has been missing since last Monday, when he left his home at about 3:15 p.m. to 4 p.m. to walk to a friend’s house in Colorado Springs, his stepmother, Letecia “Tecia” Stauch, told the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. After initially categorizing Gannon as a runaway, the case was upgraded to a missing/endangered persons case.
There were 50 people searching the Lorson Ranch neighborhood where the boy lives on Sunday, authorities said. The FBI has joined the search as well.
“We would like to remind those who live in or around the Lorson Ranch area to be mindful of and check areas on your property a child may hide to include yards, window wells, outbuildings and culverts,” the sheriff’s office said.
The number of tips has steadily grown, with the sheriff’s office announcing Sunday it was sifting through 134 to see if they could be of assistance.
“I’m so thankful for all the outpouring of help this case has brought,” Gannon’s birth mother, Landen Hiott, said at a press conference on Friday. “My son is a very loving kid, he wouldn’t want harm on anybody at all and it’s so hard to think, ‘Why is this happening to him?’ I have no clue. My kid deserves to come home. My kid has a purpose, my kid has a life and is important to me and is important to everybody that is standing in this room.”
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office tweeted on Jan. 30, as rumors about the case began to spread online, “Any information prematurely released that has not been confirmed by the EPSO takes away from this investigation and does not help in locating Gannon.”
FBI Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD), Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency Management, El Paso County Search and Rescue, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Colorado Springs Police Department, Fountain Police Department and the Salvation Army have all been involved in the search.
Stauch was last seen wearing a blue jacket, blue jeans and sneakers. He has brown hair and brown eyes and is about 4-foot-9 and 90 pounds.
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