Authorities say it appears the father and his infant son who were the subject of an AMBER Alert in Iowa early this morning are both dead.
The nine-month-old boy was reportedly taken last night from his mother’s home in the Des Moines area, according to Urbandale Police Sergeant Gary Lang.
“We issued the AMBER Alert overnight and shortly after we issued it, we were contacted by the Missouri State Highway Patrol,” Sergeant Lang says. “They were investigating a severely burned vehicle in a conservation area in Harrison County, Missouri, and inside that vehicle were the remains of an adult and an infant.”
Lang says there’s little question, it’s the missing pair.
“Everything appears that way,” he says. “The problem with the severely burned vehicle is getting a VIN (vehicle identification number) that hasn’t melted. They’re still working on that but all the indications we have point to this to be our people that we were searching for.”
The vehicle was identified in the AMBER Alert as a black 2003 Land Rover Discovery, which is the same type of vehicle found in northern Missouri. Lang was asked if the vehicle had been in an accident or whether the fire was set intentionally by the driver.
“There was no crash and that’s all part of the ongoing investigation that I can’t comment on right now,” he says.
The suspect was identified as 33-year-old Elvis Habibovic, who had taken the boy, Logan, last night from his mother’s home in Urbandale. Sergeant Lang says reports Habibovic was a non-custodial father are technically incorrect.
“There was joint custody but there were issues with when he was to be back and that sort of thing.”
Autopsies will be performed in Missouri. In addition to trying to recover the VINs from the burned SUV, Lang says DNA evidence may also be used in establishing positive identities.
Story courtesy Matt Kelley-Radio Iowa
