Family Searches for Answers in Boy's Death
Fort Worth police are searching for clues in the death of a boy whose body was found Thursday, while 5-year-old Sida Osman's family searches for answers.
Missing Boy's Body Found Wednesday
The family of 5-year-old Sida Osman are in mourning after they say his body was found near the apartment where he lived in Fort Worth.
The search for a missing boy may be drawing to a close.
Fort Worth police say the body of a black boy has been found near where 5-year-old Sida Osman went missing Tuesday and that they are working with the Tarrant County medical examiner to determine the child's cause of death and identity.
Police added that the case is an active investigation and that no further details would be released at this time.
Meanwhile, Sida Osman's family told NBC 5 reporters that the child found was Sida and that the Fort Worth police didn't take the boy's disappearance seriously.
Osman's mother said her son was last seen at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, playing outside of their apartment and that when she called him to come home, he ran off.
At least 30 police officers arrived and began looking for the boy. At one point, crime scene detectives combed through a white van parked near the family's apartment, but later left. Officers continued searching Wednesday by air, horseback and with dogs in an area near the family's residence at the Weber Garden Apartments on the 4800 block of Virgil Street.
Just after 1 p.m., officers cordoned off an area near Lois Street and Anglin Drive with crime scene tape. Police later said "the body of a young black male was located in the backyard of 4801 Lois," a vacant house.
A man, identified as Carl Williams, said he found the boy's body after a woman told him she'd heard the boy was behind the vacant house.
Williams went to check, and said he found a boy unresponsive and badly beaten.
"We ran out of the back yard, flag the police down and everybody came. They set up crime scene and everything," said Williams.
Osman's family, who moved to the United States two decades ago to escape violence in Somalia, rallied for peace and justice Wednesday afternoon after learning a boy's body had been found.
"We didn't expect this," says Muhammad Elmi, the boys' uncle. "We expected to see him alive, you know, coming back to the house smiling; happy."
Meanwhile questions in the community turn to who could have done such a thing.
"I mean the person that did this, man I don't know, it's just a heartless person that just has something against a little kid," said Hamadi Hussein, 19, a friend of Osman's father.
"It's unacceptable," said Muktar Mohammed, who organized the demonstration in the streets. "Because this is very big crime; five year old boy murdered. This is, in any religion: Christianity, Muslim, Judaism, Hindus. You can't go with this. You can't do this."
NBC 5's Lindsay Wilcox, Ben Russell and Keaton Fox contributed to this report.
