“This is obviously every parent’s worst nightmare.”
Harry’s body was discovered Wednesday. Lowell Police Department
By Susannah Sudborough
Updated June 15, 2022 19:31
The body of a 3-year-old boy named Harry Conte, who went missing in Lowell on Tuesday, was found Wednesday in a lake 650 feet away from the babysitter’s home, which was reported missing. The discovery of Harry’s body completes a huge two-day air, land and water search for the boy in the Lowell area, which involved hundreds of police and firefighters and covered 4.7 square miles. Middlesex prosecutor Marian Ryan told a news conference Wednesday that the body was found around 1:10 p.m. from the Massachusetts State Police Diving Team and that the lake is next to Rollie’s Tree Farm at 1413 Varnum Avenue. “I want to make it clear that we have no idea how Harry got to this lake, or where he might have been, or how long it might have taken him to get to this lake,” Ryan said. Lowell police said Wednesday afternoon that an investigation into what happened to Harry was ongoing, including determining the time and manner in which he entered the water. His body is being transported to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office, which will determine the cause and manner of his death, police said. Ryan said Harry’s body was found near the shore in about five feet of water. He was wearing the clothes he had last seen and there was no sign of external trauma, he said. The lake was searched yesterday morning around 11 a.m. by Lowell Fire Department and was not in the lake at the time, Ryan said. The district attorney said law enforcement was aware that Harry was most likely on the move, so they checked and re-checked the area regularly during the investigation. “This is obviously every parent’s worst nightmare,” the prosecutor said. “Everyone who has ever had an infant trembles at the infant who wanders away.” Ryan ended by thanking everyone who helped with the research and who helped the researchers. “Our thoughts and hearts are with the family that lost this child,” he said. FBI Special Agent Joe Bonavolonta, who is in charge of FBI Boston, also spoke Wednesday, saying law enforcement had developed every means at its disposal to find Harry. “Whenever there is a missing child, it is a case on deck across all local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, and that has been the case for the past 30 hours or so,” he said. Harry was initially reported missing around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. from his babysitter. His parents last saw him at 7 a.m. that morning when they left him at his babysitter’s house in Freda Lane in the Pawtucketville neighborhood of the city. A neighbor saw him outside the babysitter at around 9:15 Ryan said Wednesday that the neighbor later noticed that Harry was no longer out in the yard and asked where he was. At that point, the babysitter called Lowell’s police to report his disappearance. WBZ-TV reported that Carlisle Police Chief John Fischer, the case manager for the Northeast Massachusetts District Law Enforcement Task Force, told reporters Wednesday morning that it was Thursday morning. . The news station reported that Fisher said it appeared Harry had gone out alone and that the babysitter was watching another child at the time. “We have a very narrow window on when he disappeared,” Fischer told reporters.
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