‘WORST NIGHTMARE’

Missing 3-Year-Old Found Dead in Pond After Vanishing Under Babysitter’s Watch

Harry Kkonde’s disappearance on Tuesday sparked a search effort involving more than 200 first responders.

The body of a young boy who wandered away from his babysitter’s backyard earlier this week was found dead several hundred feet from the house, Massachusetts authorities said Wednesday. Harry Kkonde, 3, was discovered in a pond by a State Police dive team after a frantic two-day search involving more than 200 first responders. “This is obviously every parent’s worst nightmare,” Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said. “This is clearly not the result anyone, especially after many hours of searching, would have anticipated or wanted.” The pond was around 650 feet away from where he was reported missing, Ryan said, and had been previously searched on Tuesday morning, though Kkonde had not been in the pond at that point. The 3-year-old’s body was found in five feet of water, with no indication of external trauma. Authorities, who do not suspect foul play, have begun shifting “focus from finding him to finding out what happened,” Ryan said, adding that it was not yet clear how or when the child had reached the pond.