Sylar Newton remains possibly found

The remains of a small child have been found in a wash approximately 2 miles from the campground at which Sylar Newton was last seen. The remains are reported to have been found just before 1 p.m. today. Authorities state there has been heavy flooding in the area and that the body may have been washed down into the dry bed during those floods. While the remains have not yet been identified, authorities believe they are those of 2-year-old Sylar.

At this time it cannot be determined whether he simply wandered off or if foul play was involved.


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FLAGSTAFF - The world may never learn what became of Sylar Newton or understand the chaotic life of the 2-year-old Flagstaff boy who disappeared from a northern Arizona campground last month.

Family members have said little about the mystery, even less about Sylar's life story.


Yavapai County Sheriff Steve Waugh says only that the missing child is presumed dead and that his disappearance is the subject of a criminal investigation. Waugh has not divulged why investigators believe the boy is a victim of foul play.

Flagstaff court records and police reports suggest that, in his short life, Sylar had moved from one troubled home to the next, sometimes caught in a custodial tug-of-war.

The dysfunctional background has generated a whirlwind of speculation on Internet sites and blogs about missing children, including a Facebook page dedicated to Sylar. But investigators have disclosed no evidence that the boy's home life had any bearing on his disappearance.

According to the Sheriff's Office, Sylar is the birth son of Charity Newton, a Flagstaff woman who voluntarily gave custody of the child to an acquaintance, Christina "Tina" Priem, a single mother with two other children. Priem told investigators that she was in the process of adopting the boy.

During a July 24 outing with the Priem family at Beaver Creek Campground near Rimrock, Sylar went to sleep in a tent about 9:30 p.m. and was discovered missing shortly after midnight. Over the next 10 days, deputies and FBI agents, as well as hundreds of searchers using bloodhounds, helicopters, sonar and scuba equipment, could not find the boy.

As the search subsided, a criminal investigation developed. Family members were interviewed and, in some cases, given polygraph exams. Warrants were obtained to check vehicles driven by Priem and her mother, Nancy Collins, who also was on the camping trip. Detectives have not divulged any criminal evidence, nor have they discussed the troubled family history revealed in public records.

"I just want the little guy found," said Carroll Newton, Sylar's great-grandmother. "It's been two weeks from hell. It just has torn us all up."

This week, another 2-year-old boy, Emmett Trapp, disappeared from his home in Yavapai County and was later found dead near Dewey-Humboldt.

In June 2008, Sylar's birth mother, Charity Newton, 26, was arrested after a domestic incident involving Priem's sister, Sandra Shoemake. According to a police report, a fight "started over a custody issue - suspect gave custody of her son to RP (reporting party, Shoemake). Suspect is now saying RP is trying to kidnap the child."

The report says a teenage girl at the apartment tried to protect the baby while the two women struggled. Flagstaff Municipal Court records show Charity Newton pleaded guilty to five counts of disorderly conduct and fighting.

Priem, 35, has had about a half-dozen contacts with Flagstaff police during the past decade involving misdemeanor offenses and traffic violations, according to the court.

In 2007, she was found guilty of making false statements about a domestic dispute between her roommates.

In June 2009, police records say, Priem got into an altercation with her sister, Shoemake. Priem was arrested during a subsequent traffic stop with her two children in the vehicle and was accused of resisting arrest when an officer attempted to place her in handcuffs. A similar incident occurred when she was arrested a second time for failure to appear in court. The disorderly conduct/fighting charge ultimately was dismissed, according to court files.

Shoemake also has an extensive court record that includes convictions for forgery, custodial interference and theft. An arrest tied to narcotics possession was dismissed.

Carroll Newton, Sylar's great-grandmother, said Charity has given birth to four children in the past six years, each of them adopted out. Carroll said she last saw the boy at Christmas and was told he was living with Charity in Texas, even though that apparently was not true.

"She bald-faced lied to me," Carroll said of her granddaughter. "I'm so angry. If you don't want children, don't have them."

Carroll said that she was contacted by the FBI and provided a DNA sample but that she has no idea what became of Sylar.

Other members of the Newton and Priem families did not respond to phone messages or e-mail inquiries.

Steve Meisner, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Economic Security, said private adoptions are typically conducted without state involvement or paperwork. Meisner declined to comment on whether Child Protective Services workers had previous contacts with Sylar or whether they are investigating his disappearance.

The operator of a Facebook page, "Find Syler (sic) Newton," posted notes identifying Charity as a co-administrator. In subsequent messages, a person claiming to be the birth mother defended herself from critical comments.

That person said she would "never give my child to someone that I felt would hurt him. . . . I'm sorry that the world wants to believe everything that they read and hear and that is a shame that all of you do."

The author posted her e-mail address but did not respond to an e-mail.



Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/08/07/20100807sylar-newton-missing-flagstaff-boy-family-life.html#ixzz0wFzlJRCf

Yavapai County Sheriff Steve Waugh says only that the missing child is presumed dead and that his disappearance is the subject of a criminal investigation

Not like Madeliene then, where there is NO[u] evidence to suggest that any harm has come to her.

Poor little kid, thanks hobnob for posting the update.

When your asleep dont you wouldnt you feel your child get up.....this doesnt make sense at all

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20013276-504083.html

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (CBS/AP) Nearly two weeks after 2-year-old Sylar Newton was reported missing near a central Arizona campground, Arizona authorities said Tuesday that they believe the case has come to a tragic end.

PICTURES: Sylar Newton Missing

Skeletal remains were found at the bottom of a wash less than 2 miles from the Beaver Creek Campground, where the toddler was last seen July 24, Yavapai County sheriff's spokesman Dwight D'Evelyn said.

Police believe someone tried to hide the remains and they ended up in the river bed after recent flash flooding.

"Somebody didn't want us to find him," sheriff's Capt. David Rhodes said.

No suspects have been named, but D'Evelyn said foul play is suspected. He released no further details besides saying that an autopsy was planned.

Sylar was staying at the campground near Rimrock with his custodial mother, Christina Priem, and her family when he was reported missing. Rimrock is about 40 miles south of Flagstaff.

The investigation took a grim turn last week when D'Evelyn said investigators didn't believe Sylar wandered off on his own, as Priem said, but was taken from the area and feared dead.

PICTURES: Sylar Newton Missing

The remains were discovered by a distant relative of Sylar who lives in the area and had periodically been searching for the boy, Rhodes said.

Rhodes said that previous searches had been conducted in the general area where the remains were found but not the exact spot. He said the search had been conducted as if looking for a lost person, not a concealed body.

"We were confident that anywhere he could have wandered or walked away from the campsite legitimately, we had covered," Rhodes said.

Searchers previously walked up and down washes, and scoured a landfill, trash bins and other areas of the campsite for more than a week.

Authorities are looking into custodial issues involving Sylar, Priem and Sylar's biological mother, Charity Newton. Newton told reporters last week that she was pregnant with Sylar when she met Priem and was "messed up" and knew she couldn't care for her son.

She says she gave temporary custody to Priem in 2008, but when authorities visited Priem's home in January she told them that Newton had given her full custody nearly two years earlier. Authorities were unable to find a paper trail to confirm her claim.

I wonder what the sister that was sleeping in the same tent has said? I would assume that the cops have spoken to her and let her know that she isn't in trouble ( if they have a suspect already in mind) and what she saw>
You can bet the mom would have applied pressure to the daughter to cover up anything she may have seen given that if the child tells the truth mommy will go to jail and no child wants that.
I wonder what would happen if they removed the child from her mom and family and placed her somewhere safe and expalined why they have done what they have whether they would get more details.
My concern is that if the child saw something she shouldn't have and the suspect thinks the child will say something, that child may be at risk of harm. Accidents can be arranged and if you have already killed once then the 2nd time is far easier since you have already crossed that boundry.

Another helpless little angel gone.

hobnob wrote:I wonder what the sister that was sleeping in the same tent has said? I would assume that the cops have spoken to her and let her know that she isn't in trouble ( if they have a suspect already in mind) and what she saw>
You can bet the mom would have applied pressure to the daughter to cover up anything she may have seen given that if the child tells the truth mommy will go to jail and no child wants that.
I wonder what would happen if they removed the child from her mom and family and placed her somewhere safe and expalined why they have done what they have whether they would get more details.
My concern is that if the child saw something she shouldn't have and the suspect thinks the child will say something, that child may be at risk of harm. Accidents can be arranged and if you have already killed once then the 2nd time is far easier since you have already crossed that boundry.

Was the child in a tent with just another child?

kitti wrote:

hobnob wrote:I wonder what the sister that was sleeping in the same tent has said? I would assume that the cops have spoken to her and let her know that she isn't in trouble ( if they have a suspect already in mind) and what she saw>
You can bet the mom would have applied pressure to the daughter to cover up anything she may have seen given that if the child tells the truth mommy will go to jail and no child wants that.
I wonder what would happen if they removed the child from her mom and family and placed her somewhere safe and expalined why they have done what they have whether they would get more details.
My concern is that if the child saw something she shouldn't have and the suspect thinks the child will say something, that child may be at risk of harm. Accidents can be arranged and if you have already killed once then the 2nd time is far easier since you have already crossed that boundry.

Was the child in a tent with just another child?

Hi kitti,
there's a thread here about Sylers story, poor mite...

https://missingmadeleine.forumotion.net/missing-in-the-usa-f43/2-year-old-boy-goes-missing-from-arizona-family-camp-site-t11461.htm

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hNHSf_foth1NCr7f3cWrl0TWv7fAD9HI7B5O1

PRESCOTT, Ariz. — A reward of up to $3,500 is being offered for information that could lead to the arrest of whoever is responsible for the death of an Arizona toddler.

Authorities believe that skeletal remains discovered at a central Arizona campground this week are those of 2-year-old Sylar Newton of Flagstaff.

Sylar was camping with his custodial mother and her family on July 24 when they reported he had wandered away.

Authorities say they believe someone tried to hide the remains, and a criminal investigation is under way. No suspects have been named.

The Yavapai Silent Witness program is offering a $1,000 cash reward, and the FBI is offering an additional $2,500 for information that could lead to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/08/20/20100820sylar-newton-search-warrant-abrk.html

A search warrant released Friday shed light on the hours before the disappearance of a 2-year-old Flagstaff boy whose body authorities believe was found in a wash weeks after he went missing.

Sylar Newton went missing the night of July 24 from Beaver Creek Campground, near the community of Rimrock.

Authorities conducting a criminal investigation say that skeletal remains found in a ravine about 2 miles from the campground are Sylar's and that someone tried to hide the body. A medical examiner has yet to make a final determination on the identity.

Judge Mary Hamm of Seligman Justice Court signed a warrant July 25 allowing the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office to search property belonging to Sylar's custodial mother, Christina Priem, and her mother, Nancy Collins.

Priem and Collins had been visiting the campsite with Sylar, Priem's son and daughter, and a 14-year-old family friend.

The search warrant said campers reported seeing either Priem or Collins be "verbally abusive" to the boy and "push Sylar to the ground because he could not find his shoes." Campers also told investigators they heard the child crying between 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. but could not hear anything after.

Priem's daughter, 11, told detectives that earlier in the afternoon, she saw Sylar staggering and then could not wake him, the warrant said.

Records indicate the family friend told detectives he heard Sylar had got into Collins' lockbox and ingested a muscle relaxant. Collins told detectives she knew of another time when Sylar had ingested her medication. She said her lockbox was kept in her car, but other family members told detectives it could have been in the tent.

Collins admitted to smoking pot the same day Sylar went missing, the search warrant showed.

Records sent to the Sheriff's Office by Flagstaff Police Department revealed that "both mother and grandmother have an extensive history with the police involving drugs, assault, child abuse and child neglect."

No one has been named as a suspect, and a reward of up to $3,500 is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in Sylar's death. Anyone with information can contact Yavapai Silent Witness at 800-932-3232.

What a tragic tale.

Just had a quick google and it doesn't seem that this story has been reported in the UK press. Too difficult for them? Yet the Mail and the Sun can print the story about the English perv on a beach 50 miles from PDL and link to Maddie.

RIP Sylar.

"Campers also told investigators they heard the child crying between 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. but could not hear anything after."


Let me see, where have I read something very similar just prior to a child being whoosh clucked?

jay2001 wrote:What a tragic tale.

Just had a quick google and it doesn't seem that this story has been reported in the UK press. Too difficult for them? Yet the Mail and the Sun can print the story about the English perv on a beach 50 miles from PDL and link to Maddie.

RIP Sylar.

The Mail would rather print rubbish about some very tenuous link between a man on a beach, separated by three years, 50 miles and a great dissimilarity of circumstances from Maddie's disappearance, than print a story with real similarities to what took place in Praia da Luz on May 3rd 2007. I don't think many of us here will be wondering why.

Exactly Pennylane, after the hour and a half crying incident : Mrs Fenn stated that "when the McCanns returned to the apartment, the crying stopped almost immediately"

No child can just STOP crying, its IMPOSSIBLE!

hmmmm? I beleive Maddie died on or around the 2nd they more than likely smacked her for crying for so long and interupting their "me time"