Child's Body Recovered from New Mexico Well - East Idaho News
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Child’s Body Recovered from New Mexico Well

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GETTY N 030512 Well?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1330965796056iStockphoto/Thinkstock (file photo)(CARLSBAD, N.M.) — After hours of work, rescue teams in southeastern New Mexico recovered the body of a 4-year-old boy from the bottom of a narrow 30-foot well Monday morning.

“They did recover the boy, just a short time ago,” Carlsbad Fire Department Battalion Chief Ron Steven told ABC News.

The Carlsbad Police Department confirmed to ABC News’ Albuquerque affiliate KOAT that the boy, Samuel Jones, was dead.

A number of rescue teams including police, firefighters, construction workers and mining crews worked through Sunday and into Monday morning to reach Jones.  The teams had to dig into the hole at a slanted angle in order to avoid a collapse.  They reached him at about 7 a.m. MT.

“They dug a huge hole surrounding a small diameter hole he fell into to access him,” Steven said.  “There was some hand digging at the last little bit.”

Jones’ body was put into an ambulance and taken away from the site.

Authorities believe the young boy fell down the 30-foot hole, which has a diameter of only 14 inches.  On Sunday, the Carlsbad Fire Department said they determined that the conditions of the fall would not be survivable due to low temperatures and a lack of oxygen at the bottom of the hole.

The boy disappeared from his home Saturday afternoon where he was last seen playing in the yard with some young cousins.  It was originally believed that he had been abducted.

An Amber Alert issued for Jones was canceled on Sunday after the discovery of a hole on a property next door to his house.

A detective shined a light into the hole and saw what appeared to be a body.  A camera that was sent down showed clothing that appeared to match what Jones was last seen wearing, according to KOAT.

An official cause of death has not yet been determined.

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