A five-year-old autistic boy has been found dead in a sewage tank after vanishing for three days.
João Gabriel Ferreira dos Santos went missing after telling his mother he was going to the outside toilet on Sunday morning (26 Jul).
His parents searched for about an hour before raising the alarm.
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Hundreds of rescuers launched a massive hunt involving dogs, drones, a helicopter and volunteers.
The search covered three square kilometres of dense woodland, ponds and farmland.
The non-verbal child, who needed level-two support for autism spectrum disorder, lived with his parents on a rural property where they worked as caretakers.
His body was recovered in a two-metre-deep pool of water that had collected on the torn cover of a bio-digestor about 70 metres from the family home.
Firefighters found him while draining water from the structure used to break down pig waste and other organic matter at the farm in Araucária in the Brazilian state of Paraná yesterday afternoon (28 Jul).
The tarp that should have stayed inflated by gases had a tear, allowing the deadly pool to form.
The area was fenced but had a gap the little boy could have slipped through, as reported by Need To Know.
Fire department spokesperson Eduardo Hunzicker said: “It was a location we had already mapped.
“The tarp was punctured and underneath were animal faeces.
“The water was completely contaminated, making diving impossible.
“We asked the property owner to empty the water and the boy was located during that work.”
Governor Ratinho Junior expressed deep sadness and offered condolences to the family.
Civil police and forensic teams have opened an investigation.
Officers say there are no signs of crime so far and are treating the death as a probable accident.
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