Siraj Davenport
SMITHFIELD, N.C. -- The 3-year-old boy who disappeared from a flea market in Smithfield Sunday afternoon was never missing at all, according to Smithfield police.
Rosnah Thomason weaved an elaborate tale about how her 3-year-old son disappeared from the Brightleaf Flea Market near Highway 301 Sunday afternoon in a call to 911 operators:
Thomason: "We were going to have a barbecue today and I told him to put on his blue shirt with a yellow truck and a pair of sweatpants. He's usually very, very good and he always follows me around."
911 operator: "What's his name?"
Thomason: "His name is Raji; that's his nickname. We call him Raji, but his full name is Siraj Munir."
The 3-year-old boy who disappeared from a flea market in Smithfield Sunday afternoon was never missing at all, according to Smithfield police.
But authorities said none of that was true during a news conference Tuesday morning.
"I can tell you that the child was never in Smithfield. The child was not abducted from the flea market central square,” Smithfield police Chief Steve Gillikin said.
Local and federal law enforcement agencies spent a lot of resources in their search as they looked for the boy on Sunday and Monday, canvassing the area around the flea market.
"There's been a lot of man hours spent, there's been a lot of money spent, and unfortunately, in situations like this, it makes the next one that comes along that much more difficult,” Gillikin added.
Local mothers were also upset when they heard of the hoax.
"You get a little disgusted that someone would even pull something like that because you want people to pay attention when kids are missing,” Johnston County resident Caren Wharton said of the hoax.
Wharton and her neighbor took their kids along on Monday when they passed out flyers about the missing boy as they tried to help find him. They are upset that it was essentially a wasted effort, but it doesn't change how they would react in the future.
"It won't because it's a child. That's something that until you know the situation, until you know that child is safe, you do everything you can to help,” Johnston County resident Leigh Ann Blevins added.
Not only is the boy safe, he was never missing in the first place.
Federal and local authorities are still working on the investigation, and the FBI interviewed Thomason for hours. Chief Gillikin did not say whether charges would be filed against her.