A 10-year-old boy who wandered off from his home in the middle of the night while sleepwalking was found dead in a pond, according to police.
Jackson S. Georgari was found unresponsive in the water around 12:30 p.m. on Thursday near the Briarcliff Village shopping center in Kansas City — about a mile south from the boy’s home where he was last seen about 12 hours earlier, according to Kansas City Police.
Responders pulled him out of the pond and attempted life-saving measures but could not revive the boy. He was declared dead at the scene, Capt. Jake Becchina, a spokesperson for the Kansas City Police Department, told The Kansas City Star.
Jackson’s cause of death was not immediately known, but there were no immediate signs of foul play, according to police. A medical examiner will perform an autopsy to determine how he died, officials said.
Before authorities made the grim discovery Thursday, his family told KMBC 9 that he had sleepwalked before — and he did not know how to swim.
“The first time it happened was when we were in San Diego, and he (sleepwalked) and then someone found him on the street and they called 911. They brought him over and he was found safely,” said Semina Richard, Jackson’s sister.
“The second time, it was here. … We recently moved here from San Diego to Missouri. And he ran away again, and he went, like, all the way up there where his school is at because that’s the only place he recognizes,” she said.
Police said the investigation is ongoing.
The Parent Teacher Organization at Briarcliff Elementary School, where Jackson was a student, asked the school community to keep his family in their thoughts.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the student’s family, friends, classmates, teachers, and everyone whose lives were touched by him,” the organization posted on Facebook.
