A sad ending to the case of a missing 7-year-old autistic boy from Wood County. Search parties found the body of Benjy Heil of Saratoga late Tuesday morning, in a small pond about a half mile from his home. Wood County Sheriff's Lt. Dave Laude says this was clearly not the conclusion they'd hoped to achieve, after volunteers spent nearly six days searching for him.
Laude says the area where Heil was found had already been searched by volunteers. The search had grown to over a four mile radius from Heil's home. The sheriff's department will now investigate how Heil died and how long he was in the water, although Laude says no foul play is suspected.
Heil wandered away from home last Thursday night. boy's family says he's wandered away before, but had never been gone for this long. Laude says they're extremely distraught over the discovery.
WSAU's Matt Lehman contributed to this report.