The remains of a toddler found in the Garfield Park Lagoon over Labor Day weekend have come back as matching the DNA of a 2-year-old boy reported missing in September in Rockford, Chicago police said Wednesday.
Kyrian Knox was first reported missing in mid-September, but Rockford police said it was not clear when the boy was last seen. A statement issued by Rockford at the time said the boy was believed to be in the care of a family friend before he was reported missing.
Chicago police have received DNA test analysis matching the remains found in Garfield Park to those of Kyrian, said Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi on Wednesday.
According to the boy’s grandmother Cameshia Harris, the family was devastated by the news they received Wednesday from authorities. She said the family was gathered at the another family member’s West Side home processing the information.
“My heart is hurting right now,” said Harris. “We’re processing the information as a family that we were given today. The family is together and we are trying to wrap our minds over it.”
The Cook County medical examiner’s office was still waiting to receive the DNA tests results Wednesday evening, after which the office will review them and make an official identification, an office spokeswoman said.
Rockford detectives contacted Chicago police in late September to report a possible link, Guglielmi said at the time. Chicago detectives traveled to Rockford to collect a DNA sample from a family member of the boy, which was sent for testing at the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va., Guglielmi said.
Detectives in Chicago were “cautiously optimistic” about the lead, Guglielmi said at the time.
The foot of a toddler was found in the lagoon Sept. 5. Additional remains, including the head, were found over the next two days.
Investigators believed the remains to be that of an African-American boy, but officials cautioned at the time that the body could be of a “mixed-race heritage” or even that of a girl. The toddler was most likely about 2 years old, investigators said.
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Investigators looked into two other missing cases out of Gary and Searcy, Ark., but hadn’t felt either connection was strong.
Rockford police on Wednesday referred questions to Chicago police.
Naron Harris, the boy’s great-uncle, held up a white t-shirt with Kyrian Knox’s picture on it in the dim yellow glow of the streetlight at the family’s West Side home.
“It’s a bad situation,” he said. “It’s a bad situation.”
Tribune reporter Grace Wong contributed.