LAVAL - Search crews and volunteers in Laval spent a rainy Monday searching for Adam Benhamma, a three-year-old boy who is autistic, deaf and mute and has been missing since Sunday afternoon.

But by 5:30 p.m. Monday the search was called off for the day after coming up empty, ramping up fears about the young boy's safety.

Still, the Laval police are not giving up hope in the face of what appear to be hopeless circumstances.

"We have to find him, so all of our efforts will be put in to finding this kid," said Laval Police Sgt. Simon Charette. "We have to continue (searching) and that's what we're going to do. We'll be here tomorrow, and if we have to be here the next day we'll be here."

The overnight weather forecast calls for warming temperatures, but more rain and windy conditions. The search is scheduled to resume at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Adam was playing outside a home on Pointe-aux-Ormes Rd. in Auteuil on Sunday afternoon with his seven-year-old sister when he went missing while his father stepped inside momentarily, according to police.

"His older sister was playing outside the house, and at one point she came inside and said she could no longer see her brother,"said Laval Police Const. Nathalie Lorrain.

The children's mother, who was not at the house at the time, reportedly went into nervous shock and had to be hospitalized when told.

Divers searched river on Monday

When the search was called off it had been 28 hours since Adam was last seen.

"The more time that passes of course the less hope we have of finding the little boy alive," said Lorrain. "We are leaning more and more to the fact that he might have fallen into the river."

Up to 30 police officers spent Sunday afternoon and evening searching the nearby woods while helicopters provided an eye overhead. When the search resumed Monday morning, Surete du Quebec divers were called in to comb the floor of the Mille-Iles River that flows behind the home where Adam was last seen.

The diving operation was difficult, with frigid waters and breaking ice complicating the search. The river's water is so murky visibility is practically at zero at the bottom.

No signs of boy in muddy marshland

Jonathan Poirier has lived in the Auteuil neighbourhood all his life.

"We know these woods like the back of our hand," said Poirier.

He says it is very easy to get lost in the nearby woods where the ground is muddy and wet year-round.

The area being searched is about a five-minute drive down a muddy road to a small group of houses, which are surrounded by marshland and located next to the river.

Police used ATVs to patrol the woods, but the vehicles were sinking into the mud and slowing down the search.

However, despite the slow-going, police asked would-be volunteers to stay away from the area because they didn't want the scent of more people to interfere with the sniffer dogs.

Description

Adam weighs 25 pounds and has black hair.

He was last seen wearing a black coat, a black and purple tuque, blue jeans and blue running shoes.

Anyone who sees him is asked to call 9-1-1, and to approach him very calmly and gently.