Search for missing boy ends in tragedy

WASHINGTON (WIVB) - The frantic search for a missing boy with ties to Western New York has come to a tragic end.

The body of eight-year-old Azriel Carver has been found in Washington state.

His father, Jay Carver, lives in Lancaster.

The body of Azriel Carver is carried to a boat, waiting just offshore of an island in Puget Sound in Washington state.

People walking on the beach on Thursday called 911 to say they had found the boy's body up among some driftwood on the island's south end.

Detective Ed Troyer explained, "The clothing and t-shirt and things that we can see, match up pretty good."

The remote beach faces south, and powerful tide currents apparently dragged the body 12 miles from where his mother's car was found.

Carver was found with a shirt pulled up over his head, preventing identification, until the medical examiner arrived by boat.

Several hours after the body was found on the beach, forensic investigators were brought in, and it didn't take long to make the identification officially.

"This obviously ended in a way we didn't want it to end but we're 99% positive it's him, now that we have moved him around and processed the scene."

Once it was clear that Carver's body had floated that farth north, a search plane and coast guard helicopter began flying over the shoreline, looking for any sign of Carver's mother, Shantina Smiley.

The boy's father, Jay Carver traveled to Washington state earlier this week to help look for his son, only to see it end in tragedy.

"Here we are on the beach where he landed and, um, it sucks," Jay exclaimed.