Police suspend active park searches for missing 5-year-old Lucas Hernandez

Wichita police have suspended a series of active park searches for a missing 5-year-old boy and said items found by volunteer searchers were not connected to the case.

Officer Charley Davidson said Tuesday that with no planned searches for Lucas Hernandez, police are continuing to investigate the case as detectives go through information they already have and ask for the public’s help. Police may conduct more searches depending on what tips come in.

Police searched Cottonwood Park in southeast Wichita on Monday after previously searching Chisholm Creek, Dr. Glen Day and Harrison parks. The Cottonwood Park search came after police received new information in the search for Lucas, who was reported missing on Feb. 17 by his stepmother at her house in the 600 block of South Edgemoor.

In addition to grid searchers and divers, more than 100 law enforcement officers used police dogs, horses and drones to search the areas.

Volunteer community searchers found several items in Chisholm Creek Park on Monday, but none of the items were associated with the case, investigators said. Police did not describe the items.

Police did not discourage volunteer searches, but asked people to not disturb anything that might be evidence. Deputy Police Chief Gavin Seiler said last week that the search for Lucas is a criminal investigation.

Police have said that they found no evidence of an abduction, which is why an Amber Alert was not activated.

Lucas has brown hair and brown eyes, is about 4 feet tall and weighs about 60 pounds. He was last seen wearing black sweats, white socks and a gray shirt with a bear on it.

Davidson asked the public to continue to send tips to police at 316-383-4661.

This story was originally published February 27, 2018 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Police suspend active park searches for missing 5-year-old Lucas Hernandez."