NORTH PORT, Fla. – The photo of sweet baby Chance Walsh is now making national headlines after the nine-week-old disappeared a month ago. People in this small town are doing whatever they can to help. One woman, who doesn’t know the family, dropped a teddy bear off at the makeshift memorial on Saturday. She says it was her way of helping.
This all started on September 9th–the last time Chance’s grandparents saw him at his home in North Port. His parents, Joseph Walsh and Kristen Bury, are being held on child neglect charges and not talking.
“At the end of the day, there is only two people who know where that child is at,” Sheriff Tom Knight with the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) said.
The suspicion started when the couple went on a road trip seemingly without Chance. On September 28th-30th, Bury and Walsh stayed at the Red Carpet Inn in Augusta, GA. In surveillance video from that hotel, mom and dad are seen at the front desk with no baby in sight. The housekeeper says she didn’t see any signs of Chance either.
“I had a confrontation with them basically, talked to them, talked to the childs father not knowing that a baby was missing.”
During their stay, Bury allegedly offered baby clothes to a couple, saying her baby died three weeks ago.
“After numerous attempts by all of us to see him and with no response from his parents for several days without any explanation, we have contacted the sheriff’s department,” Sally Susina, Chance’s grandmother, said.
On Monday, October 5th, detectives found blood spatter in the family’s North Port home. Cadaver dogs also locked on to possible traces of human remains near the front door.
“We’re very structured not just to do searches of canals, searches of property, inside buildings, using cadaver dogs,” Sheriff Knight said.
A day later, Walsh and Bury were arrested and told detectives they gave their baby away.
On Thursday, a 7-foot long alligator was removed from the canal behind Chance’s home. Wildlife officers say they are performing a necropsy as a precaution. Detectives were back the next day searching the woods behind their home.
“We ask for everyone, for your continued prayers for Chance and for our families to find him,” his grandmother said.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office at (941) 861-4074, Crime Stoppers of Sarasota County at (941) 366-TIPS or submit a tip online.