ROCKFORD, Mich. — Friday afternoon, just before 1 p.m. search crews discovered the body of missing 16-year-old Cortez McConer Jr. in a wooded area behind a home on S. Fremont St. NE.
“This is not the outcome we had hoped for,” says Chief Eric Winstrom. “On behalf of GRPD, we send our heartfelt condolences to Cortez’s family and friends and the many in our community who will be grieving alongside them.”
Cortez's father posted the following statement to Facebook after the discovery:
"My son was found in Rockford in a heavily swamped area on the opposite side of the McDonald's on Wolverine st. ... He got stuck and his body was half submerged under water. He died within a few hours of getting stuck. ... He could not be seen or located by eye he was found by a police dog. Thank you for all the support and prayers."
The patch of land where he was found is located between Fremont and Wolverine Blvd.
Crews with the Grand Rapids Police Department (GRPD), the Kent County Sheriff’s Office, and Michigan State Police (MSP) were out in force Friday morning in an effort to locate the missing teenager.
“I am fearful and want to be realistic too, which is why we have assets that we do out here today. It's a very large geographic area that we're searching and like I said, I want to find answers,” GRPD Chief Eric Winstrom told media early in the day.
“I’m not going to say I'm hopeful that we find Cortez today. I'm hopeful that Cortez sees this and reaches out and lets us know he's okay.”
GRPD says that Cortez was seen running from officers near the MCDonald's on E Division, west of Courtland Drive NE and Kies St NE in Rockford on the evening of October 28.
A friend of Cortez was arrested that night; though the 16-year-old wasn’t apprehended.
Cortez would end up being found less than a mile from that McDonalds.
It is a tragic ending for a family and community who were desperate to find the young man.
His family organized numerous search efforts, speaking to Cortez through multiple media interviews.
"Babe, come home. We miss you so much," Cortez's mother, Kisha Haggerty, said in an earlier interview with FOX 17.
“I promise I won't be upset. Just come home. We miss you. We miss you so bad. Please come home to us. Please, please, please.”
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Investigators were in the process of retrieving information from the boy’s phone, and social media accounts.
“Sometimes getting results back from things like financial transactions, social media, it takes a while,” he explained.
“At this point in time, we have search warrants out for phone for financial transactions, for social media, and everything that we've seen so far is negative. There's nothing to show that he's had activity of any of the sorts.”
They were concerned that Cortez had not been in touch with even his family members in recent days.
“We've been checking social media, obviously, with his family and his friends, the communication just isn't there,” Chief Winstrom explained Friday.
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Their search Friday began near 10 Mile Rd, west of Wolverine Drive, with crews slowly working their ways south to Kroes.
“If you're not used to the area, there's a lot of dense wooded area up here. There's a lot of wetlands up here. It can be a dangerous place,” Chief Winstrom said as Friday’s efforts were getting underway. x
Crews were utilizing drones, as well as search and rescue dogs.
“One of the things that's that's been very helpful is the canines that we use, we make sure that their handlers are equipped with GPS, so we've been able to track exactly where the dogs have already been,” Chief Winstrom said.
“It’s almost like in the old days, the grid searches that we used to do, with marking it out. We do that with technology now.”
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Investigators said repeatedly that they were worried Cortez was hiding from them out of fear he was in legal trouble.
“The information that we had early on was that Cortez was running from the police… 16-years-old, this is not a serious crime. He was the occupant of a stolen car,” Winstrom explained Friday.
“Kids make mistakes all the time. We all made mistakes when we were 16-years-old, and in no shape or form are we interested whatsoever in holding Cortez any criminal accountability. We just want to make sure that Cortez is safe.”
If you have any information on this case, please call GRPD detectives by calling (616) 456-3380 or submit information anonymously via Silent Observer at (616) 774-2345.
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