The Jacksonville Sheriff said they could not be more worried about Lonzie Barton, the 21-month-old who disappeared in an alleged car jacking early Friday morning.
Dozens of deputies spent Friday searching the Jacksonville neighborhood where 21-month-old Lonzie Barton was last seen.
“We are looking anywhere that we can look to find this child, the longer this goes on that we cannot find this child, the worse the outcome is going to be," said Jacksonville Sheriff Chief Tom Hackney.
Hackney said the boy was being watched by his mother’s boyfriend while she was at work.
The boyfriend, William Ebron Junior, told police he put Lonzie and his 5-year-old sister in his car to go pick the mother up from work but had to run up to the apartment.
“He’s up there for what we don’t know to be a short time or a long time, but the five year old who was left in the car, it was dark out, she became scared so she went back into the apartment, and told him hey I’m scared," said Hackney.
Ebron said when he went downstairs he saw his car being driven away with Lonzie inside of it.
The car was recovered 15 to 20 minutes later a short distance from the apartment complex and Lonzie was nowhere to be found.
A car seat was found in the car but Hackney said there was no evidence that Lonzie was buckled in. At the time of his disappearance he was only wearing a diaper.
Hackney said Ebron is being cooperative. They did collect evidence from a Laundromat they said he was at on Thursday night.
Court records show Lonzie’s mother and Ebron had a rocky relationship. Just two weeks ago she filed a third domestic violence injunction against Ebron.
At this time he has not been charged with a crime in relation to Lonzie’s disappearance.