BROOKFIELD - Divers and other rescue crews scoured a portion of the Shenango River near the old Sharon Steel plant Friday for a missing 12-year-old Sharon, Pa., boy.
The search was called off around 9 p.m. because of darkness. Divers planned to resume the search at the same area of the of river near the state line on U.S. Route 62 about 8 a.m. today.
Mark Goodrich Sr. said the missing boy is his son, Mark Goodrich Jr. The elder Goodrich watched the search efforts from a wooden chair set up at an empty gas station across the street from the wooded area. He was surrounded by friends and family, including the boy's mother, who also watched rescue crews.
Article Video
The elder Goodrich, who lives in Sharon, said he last saw his son about noon Thursday, when his son told him he was walking to his mother's, also in Sharon.
''I haven't heard from him since,'' Goodrich said.
He said he had been calling frequently Thursday and Friday looking for the boy.
Article Photos
Crews search the Shenango River near the old Sharon Steel plant on Friday after a 12-year-old Sharon, Pa., boy went missing.
Tribune Chronicle / Joe Gorman
''I was up all night,'' Goodrich said. ''I called at least 1,000 people.''
He said some of his son's friends said they had seen him at the Circle K store on the state line and a phone resembling his son's was found smashed to pieces on U.S. 62.
''We put two and two together,'' Goodrich said.
Brookfield police Chief Daniel Faustino said family members told police that friends of the boy had told them he was on the railroad trestle where searchers were concentrating their search Friday.
Faustino said a search dog picked up a scent on the riverbank near the trestle and that's where divers and boats concentrated their search.
Members of the Trumbull County Sheriff's Office Dive Team were in the river, and the Mecca, Weathersfield and Orangeville fire departments assisted with boats. Brookfield and Sharon also had boats in the water.
Sharon police were also on the scene as was borough police Chief Michael Menster.
Family members began searching on their own early Friday afternoon before police were called.