CONYERS, Ga. — "I have never seen so many lights flashing in all my life," recalled Sylvester Redman.
Redman lives in the cul-de-sac at the end of Flatstone Court in Conyers, and was there that night when deputies made a tragic discovery: a 4-year-old's body in a pond behind the neighborhood.
For three frantic hours, authorities searched for Legend.
“Searched under my house, behind my house, under my truck, under my wife’s car. Just looking everywhere desperately trying to find this kind,” Redman recounted.
At first, investigators found nothing.
Then, a footprint.
With that, a K-9 officer from the Rockdale County Sheriff's Office was finally able to track down Legend, where deputies found his body in the pond.
PHOTOS | 4-year-old Legend Benton
Photos: 4-year-old Legend Benton
Redman recalled the moment they pulled the 4-year-old from the water.
“Brought him out on an UTV, doing CPR on him. Stopped over there and put him on a board and kept doing compressions on him," Redman described. "They took him away in an ambulance and a little over an hour later, we found out he expired.”
Redman said when the deputies learned that Legend did not survive, they sat down on the curb for 40 minutes in silence, likely, he said, hurting from the news.
But perhaps no one is hurting more than the family, and a mother who didn't get the chance to say good-bye.
"It just hurts to know he was left out there in the water like that, fighting for his life and I wasn’t there," Legend's mother, Kendra Benton, sobbed.
Benton said her husband brought their son to a family member's house while they both went to work. The father's family talked to 11Alive on the phone, and said Legend was outside, playing with adults and teenagers, when he darted away and went back to the house. And, very quickly, Legend turned up missing.
Kendra said she was at work when she got the call that Legend disappeared. She rushed over to the home where Legend was staying and said her heart sank when she saw the pond.
"That was one of his sensory disorders with him having autism, is the waters. And pillows. He loved soft things. He was always curious," she said through tears. "He was my baby. He was my only boy."
Kendra said she still has so many questions about what happened, like how do he get away so quickly.
"I’m hurt, I’m sad, I’m confused, I’m angry. There’s just so much feelings, so many feelings going on all at one time," Kendra explained.
Investigators are focusing on how the child got into water.
