3-year-old boy who wandered from home found dead in retention pond, Florida cops say

A 3-year-old boy wandered away from his home and was found dead hours later in a nearby retention pond, according to a Florida sheriff’s office.

Authorities put out a missing child alert for Axel Caballero at around 4:45 p.m. on Nov. 13 after he wandered away from his Winter Springs home, according to a post on the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.

Local residents assisted in the search, according to Facebook posts.

“A lot of people in town were looking for the boy,” Kristen Reale Cheek wrote on Facebook along with a link to a GoFundMe page for Caballero’s family. “We got in the truck to go look as well.”

Just before 7 p.m. on Nov. 13, the sheriff’s office posted an update that members of its dive team had found Axel in a nearby retention pond.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family,” the sheriff’s office wrote.

This story was originally published November 14, 2022 at 10:13 AM with the headline "3-year-old boy who wandered from home found dead in retention pond, Florida cops say."