VASS, NC (WNCN) – A 23-month-old child drowned in a small pond outside of Vass Thursday afternoon, the Aberdeen Times reported.
Officials were called to a home on Pond Branch Road off Heritage Farm Road shortly after 4 p.m. for reports of a missing child. The child, identified as Rylan Ott, was last seen playing in the yard of the home.
K-9 tracking dogs from Southern Pines Police Department and the North Carolina Department of Corrections assisted in the search for the child.
A helicopter from UNC-Chapel Hill and then from the North Carolina State Highway Patrol arrived on the scene to assist in the search.
Just before 6 p.m., the child was found by Moore County deputies floating in a small pond in an area off of Pond Branch Road.
The deputies immediately started CPR and called for an ambulance. The child was declared dead after arriving at the hospital.
The child will be sent to Raleigh for an autopsy. The drowning remains under investigation and there has been no word on any charges at this time.
