Although deputies in Wayne County have issued an AMBER alert as they search for a missing toddler, they still consider Friday's search of a Sodus farm to be a recovery effort.
More than 100 people from more than two dozen police, fire and search and rescue agencies throughout the Rochester region are searching the Joy Road apple orchard for Owen Hidalgo-Calderon said Chief Deputy Steve Sklenar of the Wayne County Sheriff's Office.
By mid-morning, the office issued an AMBER Alert for the 14-month-old boy as part of the ongoing effort to locate the child, who was last seen with his mother, Selena Hidalgo-Calderon, 18, on the property on May 16, according to police. Her body was found Wednesday in a bag in a wooded area on the same farm, where she lived and worked.
"We don't want to leave any stone unturned," Sklenar said. "We've been searching the property for a week, but the search (for Owen) really intensified today."
The property is large and the boy is small and potentially difficult to locate, he said.
Although numerous tips have been offered to deputies on the case, Sklenar said the alert was issued Friday to seek more information on the child.
"We're still hopeful that we'll find him (alive) someplace and that someone out there has information about his whereabouts," Sklenar said, adding that the search on Joy Road is still considered a recovery effort.
The massive search comes one day after deputies announced they found the mother's body.
Hidalgo-Calderon's boyfriend Alberto "Ebavardo Gutierrez" Reyes, 25, is accused of moving her body to the woods from the couple's shared residence on the farm, said Wayne County Sheriff Barry Virts. He was charged with tampering with physical evidence, a felony.
Virts, at a news conference on Thursday, said deputies believe Hidalgo-Calderon was killed in the couple's home at the Joy Road farm, where they had lived for about three weeks.
He said Reyes, who is from Mexico, is accused of moving Hidalgo-Calderon's body from the couple's shared home and burying her between two logs. Trail camera footage showed Reyes moving "in and out of the woods," carrying a shovel, over a five-hour period on May 17, he said.
Reyes did not answer questions about Owen's whereabouts, Virts said. He was apprehended Wednesday night in York, Livingston County.
"It is beyond my realm of reasoning why someone would be killed and why a small infant is still missing," Virts said. "I can't explain it. I don't know how rational people can explain it."
Deputies investigate in an apple orchard on Joy Road in Sodus, Wayne County, on May 23, 2018. (Photo: Will Cleveland/willcleveland13/staffphotographer)
Described by family as a "hard-working" young mother from Guatemala, Hidalgo-Calderon has been in the U.S. since November 2016.
“My daughter and my grandson were my life, she was my first born and I feel like a piece of my heart is gone," Estela Calderon, Hidalgo-Calderon's mother, said in a statement through the Workers' Center of Central New York.
Calderon, reported her daughter and grandson missing on Sunday, three days after last texting with Hidalgo-Calderon. The two typically communicate at the end of each day, Calderon said. Owen, who typically attends day care when his mother works, did not attend on May 17 or 18.
Reyes, deputies said, is not Owen's father. The boy's dad lives in Guatemala.
Hidalgo-Calderon was in the process of being deported and her family was in the process of applying for asylum. Her next court appearance was scheduled for June 5.
Virts said he did not believe her death was in any way linked to her immigration status.
Anyone with information is being asked to contact the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office at tip@co.wayne.ny.us or by phone at (315) 946-9711. They can also reach out to the Worker's Center of Central New York at (315) 657-6799.