Remains of boy found at New Mexico compound
A father is accused of leaving Georgia with his then 3-year-old son and told the boy's mother he wanted to perform an exorcism.
Tuesday 7 August 2018 23:18, UK
The remains of a boy have been found on a property where authorities raided a makeshift compound in search of a missing Georgia child.
The remains were found after a search in Amalia on Monday.
The authorities are in the process of identifying the remains, Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said on Tuesday.
Authorities say the search for Abdul-ghani, of Georgia, led them on Friday to the squalid compound where they found his father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, four other adults and 11 children living in filthy conditions.
The missing child was not among the children found.
The adults are facing child abuse charges.
The father is accused of leaving Georgia in December with his then three-year-old son. The warrant says that Wahhaj told the boy's mother he wanted to perform an exorcism on his son.
Police had been looking for a toddler missing from the US state of Georgia when they received a message through an investigator, which warned that those in the caravan were "starving and need food and water".
After getting a search warrant late last week, officers raided a compound in Amalia, New Mexico, and found the children, aged between one and 15, so emaciated that they looked like "refugees".
The compound consisted of nothing more than the caravan, buried in the ground and covered by plastic, with no water, plumbing or electricity.
Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe, from Taos County, described the children as being kept in the "saddest living conditions I've ever seen", with only "a few potatoes and a box of rice" for food.
"But what was most surprising, and heartbreaking, was when the team located a total of five adults and 11 children that looked like third world country refugees not only with no food or fresh water, but with no shoes, personal hygiene and basically dirty rags for clothing," he added.
They were turned over to state child welfare workers for their own health and safety, police said.
The father of the missing boy was expected to make his first court appearance on Tuesday.