5-Hour Search Fails to Find Missing Boy, 2

Police are investigating the disappearance of a 2-year-old Oxnard boy who was last seen Thursday morning playing near the west jetty of Hueneme Beach.

Auguste Forest Scott had been walking along a path adjacent to the jetty with his mother, Diana Smith, and the family dog, when the boy strayed shortly before 11 a.m. Police say Smith said that when she turned around, the boy had disappeared.

“The mom turns around after a couple of minutes, and the boy was gone,” said Port Hueneme Police Sgt. Chris Graham.

The city Police Department, with assistance from the Ventura County sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team, the Oxnard Police Department, the Ventura County Fire Department and the U.S. Coast Guard, conducted an extensive air, land and sea search for the boy. Officials did not find him after the nearly five-hour search.

As efforts to find the boy wound down, his grandfather, Bob Smith of Port Hueneme, continued searching the fields adjacent to the beach, believing the boy may be hiding.

“He doesn’t cry very much, so maybe they missed him,” Smith said.