missing child

Miami-Dade Boy Missing for Two Months Found Safe in Canada

After a two-months-long search, Jorge "Jo Jo" Morales was located in good health and unharmed in Canada.

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Jorge "JoJo" Morales, a 6-year-old boy with autism missing from Miami-Dade since August, was found safe and unharmed in Canada, Miami-Dade Police said.

JoJo had been missing since Aug. 27 after his father failed to return him to his mother as part of a custody agreement.

A missing person alert for JoJo was issued naming the father, Jorge Gabriel Martinez, and paternal grandmother, Lilliam Pena Morales.

Morales and Morales were taken into custody by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, police said.

For more than two months, Yanet Leal Concepcion, Morales' mother, said she had been living in a nightmare. 

“ I thought it is really good or really bad,” said Concepcion. 

She was thrilled to hear that JoJo was safe and sound after receiving an unexpected call from the FBI.

“It came to the point that we knew they were in Canada. That was based on some search dogs and then we started to put the information together,” Private Investigator, Joe Carrillo said.

Carrillo said an Amber alert is what helped find the child.

”A tipster called this morning from a Walmart and said he believed he saw a father with his son shopping. Police shortly came after and arrested the father and the grandmother," Carillo said.

When the child didn't come home back in August, Concepcion went to her ex-husband's place to pick him up.

"Everything was gone. Everything was gone from his apartment," she said. "His phones were off. His mom's phone was off," she said.

NBC 6's Xochitl Hernandez has more on the emotional pleas from a mother asking for help in finding child with autism.

The FBI had offered a reward of up to $10,000 for the child.

“I am glad my son is not aware of what is going on because this is a trauma. I got to speak to him and I told him I was waiting for you to come back from vacation baby! He was just like yes momma,” said Concepcion. 

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