Searchers fail to find boy, 8

BOISE – Police searched a southwest Boise residence and closed off a section of a landfill Saturday as they continued looking for an 8-year-old boy who went missing more than a week ago.

Robert Manwill reportedly disappeared July 24 after leaving his mother’s apartment in Boise, where he was visiting. Deputy Chief Jim Kerns has said evidence in the case indicated the boy could be hurt “or the victim of a tragic event.”

On Friday and Saturday, investigators searched a southwest Boise rental home. They began digging in the backyard after dogs picked up a scent, said Evan Wallis, who owns the house.

Kerns said at a press conference Saturday that the residence is one of many areas of interest in the case. Police, so far, say there have been no arrests or suspects in the case.

“It makes me sick to know this is going down at my house right now,” said Wallis, who was out of town last weekend and returned Monday. “I’m not going to say for the record nothing’s back there because I don’t know. Maybe something did happen along the lines when I was out of town.”

The night he disappeared, the boy was visiting his mother, Melissa Scott Jenkins. The boy’s father, Charles Manwill, has had custody of him since 2008.

More than 2,300 people combed a one-mile to two-mile radius of where Robert Manwill was reported missing on Friday.