Searchers Fail to Find Missing Two-Year-Old

A 2-year-old boy who wandered from his home when his stepfather went for a jog and left the door ajar was the object of an intense, daylong search Monday by scores of neighbors, three helicopters and bloodhound teams.

Cecil Turner, a blond-haired, blue-eyed toddler who goes by the nickname “C.T.,” left the family’s apartment in the 24900 block of Via Florecer between 8 and 8:55 a.m. dressed in only a diaper, Sheriff’s Lt. Jay Mendez said.

“I was sleeping and my 4-year-old daughter woke me up to ask why C.T. wasn’t in his crib,” said Marie Wu, the boy’s mother. “I jumped up and looked in his room and he wasn’t there, and then I saw the front door cracked open.”

Wu said she quickly called authorities and rushed to dress herself and her daughter and headed for a path that runs beside a ravine behind the apartment.

“We thought maybe C.T. followed my husband after he left to go jogging,” Wu said.

Before she got to the 100-step, wooden stairway that leads to the ravine, she ran into her husband, Feilong, and they went together.

Sheriff’s deputies arrived at about 9 a.m. and began looking for the boy with a bloodhound. Neighbors from the Villa Marguerite apartments quickly joined in and began their own search.

“We’ve passed out fliers to the community and to the neighboring areas and businesses,” said apartment manager Kristine Wonderly. “So far, we’ve gotten about 40 calls from people offering their assistance. People have been very supportive.”

About two dozen volunteers and 30 sheriff’s deputies combed the area late into the night, concentrating in dense brush and a creek bed behind the complex, said sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Ron Wilkerson. The ravine separates the complex and the Fred Newhart Middle School.

Deputies said they were concerned that the child might have crawled under bushes to escape the heat.

“We’re also looking in places where a child could fall asleep or get lost,” Wilkerson said.

About 7 p.m., the search and rescue team regrouped and prepared to use infrared equipment to look for the child in the darkness. About 8:30, firefighters arrived to set up bright spotlights. Two fresh bloodhounds were brought in, and residents armed themselves with flashlights to help search.

The couple, who had moved into the area only three weeks ago from Austin, Texas, nervously followed the search teams throughout the day.

“My husband was searching in the water” in the ravine, Wu said. “He feels like because he went jogging it was his fault.”

The child can walk, does not talk very well and has a gap between his top teeth, Wilkerson said.

“We’re going to continue as long as it takes to find the little guy,” he said.

Wu anxiously pleaded, “If anyone found or took C.T., please just bring him home.”

Deputies ask anyone with information to call (714) 834-6490.