TAOS COUNTY, N.M. -- A child's remains have been found of a young boy on a compound in New Mexico where authorities were looking for a missing Jonesboro, Georgia boy.
Authorities said in the news conference that they have not positively identified the remains as missing Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj. The remains were found on Monday, Abdul's 4th birthday.
"Yesterday, at 11:19 a.m. we did find remains of a young boy," said Taos County Sheriff Jerry L. Hogrefe said. "Those have been turned over to the Office of Medical Investigations."
"The child was found on the inner portion of the compound," Sheriff Hogrefe said.
"We executed our warrant on Friday that were specific to what we were allowed by law to search for. Hogrefe said. "On the conclusion of that, we had no legal right to hold that property any further, until Sunday when I obtained additional information that led me to prepare a second search warrant. And Then we took the property back under control and executed that search warrant yesterday."
PHOTOS: Father of missing boy arrested
Abdul-Ghani was allegedly abducted by his father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, in December 2017. The mother of Abdul-Ghani called Clayton County police on Dec. 10 and told authorities that she hadn't seen her son since Dec. 1, when Siraj said he was taking him to the park. Abdul-Ghani was 3 years old at the time.
Sheriff Hogrefe said in May, they learned about a warrant out of Georgia issued for Siraj, but they didn't have a specific location in New Mexico of where he was. Warrants for Siraj's arrest claimed he took his son to perform an exorcism on the child and was denying Abdul-Ghani medications.
The sheriff said when they learned about a possible compound, the FBI conducted surveillance of the area. Abdul-Ghani was never identified in the surveillance. They received a break in the case last week.
"Last Thursday, when a message we reasonably believe came from a occupant of the compound or somebody with great knowledge of the compound sent a message saying said basically, we are starving and the children are staving, or something along those lines."
On Friday in Amalia, New Mexico, Siraj was arrested with another Atlanta man, Lucas Morten after local and state law enforcement officials raided a compound.
Three women were also arrested and are facing 11 counts of child abuse. During the raid, Abdul-Ghani was not found among the children. Family confirmed to 11Alive that Hujrah, and Subhannah are Siraj's sisters and one of them is married to Morten. The third woman, Jany, has children with Siraj.
Sheriff Hogrefe said they worked with other agencies and believed that the missing could still be on the compound. They gained a warrant and went back to the property and found the remains Monday.
"The investigation is still ongoing both federally and on the state level," the sheriff said.
ADDITIONAL LINKS |
