As often happens, a careful reading reveals that dad NELSON OSCEOLA is apparently custodial, though custody issues are buried here under lots of confusing prose. This is typical. Utterly unexplained here is why this little boy lived with his father and who was responsible for this custody decision. Florida has generally led the US in terms of fathers on the Killer Dads and Custody list.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-hollywood-missing-boy-folo-20150320-story.html
'Obscure' place in Hollywood home hid missing boy's body
Developing: Police end search for 3-year-old boy
Early Friday morning Hollywood police said the public's help was no longer being sought in searching for a 3-year-old boy who had been reporting missing.
By Linda Trischitta
Sun Sentinel
A 3-year-old boy who had been reported missing from Hollywood is dead.
Police said the body of 3-year-old Ahizya Osceola was found in an obscure location inside his home.
March 20, 2015, 2:32 PM
HOLLYWOOD
A 3-year-old boy whose body was found in his father's Hollywood home Thursday night will be buried at the Big Cypress Seminole Indian reservation in Clewiston once it is released by the Broward Medical Examiner's Office, a family member said..
The death of Ahizya Osceola — whose body was discovered in an "obscure" place in a house on the 5400 block of Johnson Street — is the subject of a "criminal investigation until proven otherwise," Hollywood Police Chief Frank Fernandez said in a Friday morning press conference.
No one was in custody midday Friday and family members were cooperating with police, the agency said.
Ahizya Osceola was the son of Nelson Osceola, who lives at the home with his wife and two other children, and Karen Cypress, who lives elsewhere in the city.
Cypress is a homemaker and cares full-time for her 18-month-old twins, a boy and a girl, said her father, Kenneth Tommie.
She had made a tearful public plea Thursday for the safe return of her son.
"Please, please call the police department, so I can have my baby back," Cypress said at a news conference. "He's my heart, he's my life. I don't know what I would do…I just want him home."
Osceola said Thursday he last saw his son at 4 a.m. when he went to check on Ahizya's 8-month-old sister. When Osceola left for work at about 7:30 a.m., his wife was awake and Ahizya was still sleeping, he said.
Osceola stayed in contact with his wife until about 9 a.m., when she fell asleep with the baby.
"She woke up and he was gone," said Osceola, who learned about his son's disappearance in a text message from his wife. "I just want to see my son."
The child's parents are members of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and family members gathered around Karen at her home Friday to support her, Tommie said.
"She is waiting on a phone call from the lead investigator about when they will release the body," Tommie said. "He will have a regular funeral [at the reservation], but they will do Indian medicine after."
Tribal members "are sad," said Gary Bitner, a spokesman for the Seminoles. "Everybody's sad. It's a terrible tragedy."
Fernandez said he felt "heartfelt sorrow" that his officers' "exhaustive search" did not end with the child's safe recovery.
Though bloodhounds were used around the exterior of the home, the dogs did not search inside, Fernandez said.
The incident began at 11:48 a.m. Thursday when Seminole police called Hollywood police to report that the child was missing from the house, Fernandez said.
#The toddler's body was found about 12 hours later.
In the hours in between the report of the child's disappearance and the tragic discovery, Fernandez said a "two-to-three square mile area" was searched by his agency with the help of the Broward Sheriff's Office and Community Emergency Response Team volunteers.
At 5 a.m. Friday, a physician from the Broward Medical Examiner's Office was called and as the sun rose, the agency's SUV and two crime scene investigation trucks were parked in front of the single-story white house. Yellow police tape enveloped the home as well as neighboring properties.
Citing the investigation, the police chief would not say where the body was found and would not describe whether the child had experienced any trauma.
"We are interviewing anyone who had access to the household," Fernandez said. "Part of the investigation is, how did we find the child deceased? Why did he end up in the condition that he ended up in?"
Mayor Peter Bober called the child's death "a real tragedy for the family and definitely a loss for the city of Hollywood."
Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek and Staff Writers Emily Miller, Mike Clary, Wayne K. Roustan and Doug Phillips contributed to this story.