Jose Lara missing update: One-year-old boy’s body found in a septic tank hours after he went missing from his backyard

A ONE-year-old boy's body was found in a septic tank hours after he went missing from his backyard.

After a frantic 24-hour search for the missing one-year-old, the body of Jose Lara was found on Monday afternoon.

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“It’s my unfortunate task today to tell you that the search for Jose Lara has ended with the recovery of Jose’s body,” Putnam County Sheriff HD Gator DeLoach said.

The little boy had left his own yard Sunday afternoon and a search quickly got underway with bloodhound teams trying to find him.

After initial efforts failed, authorities started looking around an area covered in the brush near where a septic tank was located. 

The area had been covered at some point in the past with a piece of wood.

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“Underneath the layer of dirt, there was a piece of plywood that had been there for some time and appeared it had rotted to the extent so that when he stepped on it, he actually fell in,” said DeLoach.

"One of our leadership team members that made the call to drain the septic tank.

"At that point it was unfortunately when we discovered the child’s body.”

Despite the discovery of the boy’s body, DeLoach said the investigation is still ongoing. However, it doesn’t appear that foul play was involved. 

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“We were here last night to help out if we can find him, but we couldn’t,” Eric Jimenez

He was among neighbors and strangers who arrived to help look for the boy once his family said that he had wandered off. Jose’s mother was tending to another child inside their home at the time.

“I didn’t go to work, I said I’ve got to do something for this family,” said Janet Arce.

The news of the boy’s death hit everyone hard.

“As a community, this is the time for us to get together and support each other,” Arce added.

Over 120 first responders joined in the search, hoping for the boy’s safe return, only for it to end in tragedy.

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Sheriff DeLoach told WESH that the wooden cover of the septic tank seemed to spring back into place, which made it more difficult to initially determine the boy had fallen inside.

“We’re grieving with the family and ask for your prayers as they grieve this unimaginable loss of a son, a brother and a grandson,” said DeLoach.