HAMPTON, VA. (THECOUNT) — Authorities have confirmed the remains discovered at the Hampton NASA steam plant earlier this month are those of missing 2-year-old Noah Tomlin.
Hampton Police made the announcement Saturday following an update from the Virginia Department of Forensic Science and the Medical Examiner’s Office.
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The remains were found at the city-owned steam plant in Hampton just before 9 a.m. July 3, nine days after his mother reported him missing from their Hampton mobile home, Hampton Police Chief Terry Sult previously said. The boy’s mother, Julia Tomlin, is charged in his disappearance, reports Fox2Now.
City police officers — suspecting the boy’s body may have been taken to the plant or a landfill — spent days sifting through about 2 million pounds of garbage by hand, Sult said.
Julia L. Tomlin, the mother of missing toddler, Noah, was arrested and the boy assumed dead, the Hampton police chief said.
Police arrested the mother after 2-year-old Noah was reported missing on Monday morning. The boy was last seen wearing a white and green pajama shirt and diaper about 1 a.m. Monday at a mobile home in Bayside Village at Buckroe Beach, Virginia.
The Hampton police chief said specific charges against Julia Tomlin, 34, are pending. Meanwhile, officials said, the search for the child will intensify.
Police believe Noah is dead, Sult said at a news conference late Friday night at police headquarters, but “we’ll never give up hope,” reports PilotOnline.
“Our hearts and prayers continue to go out to the loved ones of Noah Tomlin and Noah Tomlin,” he said. Tomlin’s other children “are being taken care of.” The city’s Child Protective Services department is working to make sure Tomlin’s other children are safe, Sult said.
Police set up a command station at Buckroe Beach near the James T. Wilson Fishing Pier on Monday and Tuesday, Hampton police moved the focus of their search for the boy to the Bethel Landfill.
The focused investigation will continue 24 hours a day, he said, and will provide another update Saturday.
Hampton police had asked public works to delay trash pickup at the park until Wednesday morning.
Friends and family members took to Tomlin’s Facebook page to share their feelings:
DEVELOPING::
Geo quick facts: Hampton is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 137,438. As one of the seven major cities that compose the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern side of the Virginia Peninsula – Wikipedia.