IA XAVIOR HARRELSON: Missing from Poweshiek County, IA - 27 May 2021 - Age 10 *Found Deceased*

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Authorities searching for 10-year-old boy who disappeared in Poweshiek County​

Authorities are searching for a 10-year-old boy who went missing from a mobile home park in Poweshiek County on Thursday morning.

Xavior Harrelson was last seen around 11 a.m. Thursday in Montezuma, according to the Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Office.

He was last seen wearing a red T-shirt, blue pajama pants and black high-top shoes. He has brown hair and blue eyes and is about 4 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs 100 pounds.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation joined the investigation Friday.

Xavior left his home in the Spruce Village Mobile Home Park and has not been seen since, Assistant DCI Director Mitch Mortvedt said. The boy’s mother believed Xavior had gone out to play with friends, he said.

“Obviously, we’re very concerned,” Mortvedt said. “This is a young boy — he’s only 10 years old — and he’s been missing for more than 24 hours.”

The mobile home park is in northwest Montezuma, less than half a mile from Diamond Lake County Park, which Mortvedt described as a “vast wooded area.”

Mortvedt said it’s unknown if there is any criminal aspect to the boy’s disappearance, “but we are treating it like there is and deploying as many resources as we can to find him.”

“Right now, we are double- and triple-checking his friends’ houses and the places he is known to hang out. We are canvassing the immediate areas and knocking on doors and talking to people, and we’ll expand the search from there if we need to,” he said.


MEDIA - XAVIOR HARRELSON: Missing from Poweshiek County, IA since 27 May 2021 - Age 10
 
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Iowa DCI agents still following leads in Xavior Harrelson case​

Nearly four months after 11-year old Xavier Harrelson first went missing, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agents continue to follow up on leads in his case.

Harrelson disappeared from a mobile home park in Montezuma on May 27.

Earlier this month, two dozen law enforcement officials searched the Fox Forest County Recreation Area. Iowa DCI Assistant Director Mitch Mortvedt said a tip led investigators to the wooded area just west of Montezuma in Poweshiek County.

"There was information we came across in our investigation," Mortvedt said. "I can't divulge it or go into it at this time since it is an active investigation."


Mortvedt said investigators have interviewed hundreds of people throughout their investigation, including those close to Xavior and his family. DCI agents are assigned to the case and are running down leads and tips from the general public on a near-daily basis.

"They have certainly slowed down, but I wouldn't say a lot," Mortvedt said. "The public is still very active and supportive of the investigation, and, you know, and doing everything that they can."

"For an 11-year old who doesn't have the means to leave on their own and to sustain being away for an extended period of time, and now we are headed towards four months since he's disappeared," he said. "Certainly suspicious circumstances, and we are treating it as suspicious."

There are no future searches scheduled as of now, but Mortvedt said investigators could conduct more in the future if specific information warrants one.

Law enforcement and the community is still holding out hope of finding Harrelson alive.
 

Investigators: Human remains found near Montezuma, clothing consistent with Xavior Harrelson​

Officials confirm that human remains found Thursday northwest of Montezuma appear to be those of a juvenile and clothing matches the description of missing 11-year-old Xavior Harrelson.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said the Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Office received a report from a farmer of human remains discovered in a field south of the intersection of Ewart Road at 110th Street. Investigators confirmed that the remains appeared the be those of a juvenile and clothing found at the scene was similar to what Xavior Harrelson was reportedly wearing when he disappeared on May 27, just days before his 11th birthday.

“It moves us into another stage of the investigation so in that sense we are moving foward,” Poweshiek County Sheriff Thomas Kriegel of the discovery.

Investigators said the field was not an area that had been previously searched in the months since Xavior’s disappearance.

Officials said they are working to confirm the identification of the remains and the cause of death but said they could not confirm it was Xavior. The Harrelson family has been contacted following Thursday’s discovery.

“My detective talked to Sarah Harrelson (Xavior’s mother) and naturally she was upset,” Sheriff Kriegel said.

Mitch Mortvedt with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said the body had been in the location for a “significant” amount of time and an investigation could take several weeks to confirm the identity of the body and cause of death.
 
Well it's not confirmed but close clothing match, right area and apparently a juvenile. It sounds pretty likely.

Sadly, if he was found in a field, it is clearly not something like drowning so I imagine this is going to likely be foul play but that's just my speculation.

The children are just so hard to hear this about. :(
 
Ya know, Xavior reminds me a bit of Robert Bee. Not exactly, but...came from a troubled / at least somewhat troubled home life with a single mother. At first many people assumed he "ran away". Now his remains are found by a farmer working the field (Robert was found by a man mowing his rural property).
I'm not suggesting they're related in any way, just sadly similar in a few ways. I hope Xavior's death proves easier to solve than Robert's.
 
That's really in the middle of nowhere! No way he walked there, laid down and died. Praying for evidence, this feels very much like foul play, like gbear said. My thoughts are with his family ❤
I probably shouldn't jump the gun since it is not confirmed him nor foul play confirmed but both sure seem likely. My other thought is this is not far from home or is in the area (not far by car anyhow) and I am thinking a total stranger abduction/someone passing through is probably pretty unlikely. It seems likely it will be someone the family knew or who was from the area and even possibly interacted with him regularly. At Xavier's age, one wouldn't think he would go easily with a total stranger. Just thoughts.
 
I probably shouldn't jump the gun since it is not confirmed him nor foul play confirmed but both sure seem likely. My other thought is this is not far from home or is in the area (not far by car anyhow) and I am thinking a total stranger abduction/someone passing through is probably pretty unlikely. It seems likely it will be someone the family knew or who was from the area and even possibly interacted with him regularly. At Xavier's age, one wouldn't think he would go easily with a total stranger. Just thoughts.
Well Jacob Wetterling was right near home buried all that time and it was a stranger. Jacob was 12.
 
Well Jacob Wetterling was right near home buried all that time and it was a stranger. Jacob was 12.
True but I guess I mean more so that it was not a traveling through stranger most likely but someone in the area who possibly has seen him before, watched him, etc. OR even knew him, knew even where this field was, the entry and so forth...
 

Remains in Poweshiek Co. were in remote area not covered in ground search​

A community that has waited more than four months to find out what happened to 11-year-old Xavior Harrelson is now trying to make sense of human remains found in a field about 5 miles northwest of Montezuma.

A farmer discovered the remains Thursday in a field accessible by a remote gravel road.

"The nearest house would probably be a half mile away," said Doug Helm, whose family farms the adjacent field, though he did not make the discovery. "A couple different directions there'd be houses, but you're not very close to anything."

The location had not been searched by people on the ground, although it may have been covered in aerial searches.

The precise location is not visible from passing vehicles on blacktop roads to the north and south, and it is obscured from the nearest home.

"It would definitely be considered remote," Helm said.
 

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