A 6-year-old child dies after being found in Lynch Cove

A 6-year-old boy died Friday morning after he went missing in Dundalk and was found in Lynch Cove, the Baltimore Police Department said.

Marcel Traore disappeared twice on Friday. Before 3 a.m., a 911 call from a resident alerted Baltimore County police to a “child in the road.” An officer found Traore in the 8300 block of Kavanagh Road and reunited him with family members around 3:30 a.m., a spokesman told The Baltimore Sun.

Hours later, before 7 a.m., Traore’s parents contacted police to report their child missing, the spokesman said.

Baltimore County police began searching for Traore around 7 a.m. after he disappeared, believed to be about two hours earlier, near Sandy Plains Elementary School, said spokeswoman Joy Stewart. Sandy Plains Elementary posted on Facebook that Traore was a student there.

The search was then expanded to Lynch Cove. The Baltimore County Fire Department joined the search around 9 a.m. with 25 divers and more than 75 department personnel, according to spokesman Travis Francis.

Around 11:30 a.m., neighbors gathered around the bay as Baltimore County fire and police departments neared the end of an hour-long search for the child, who was nonverbal and had autism. A few minutes later, Traore was loaded into an ambulance. Another spokesman said he was found in the water.

Francis said EMS crews began “resuscitation efforts.” The child was transported to the hospital around 11:43, where he was later pronounced dead.

People sitting around a tree near the isolated search site soon seemed upset. A woman tried to run past the warning tape and was restrained by others. Tears streamed down the faces of people in empty socks and caps, who seemed to have left the house with their clothes on their backs. Screams could be heard from the houses, and some complained loudly that something was not going well. Neighbors and friends identified these people as family members of the child.

“I feel like they found him,” said family friend Lou Smith, who said he was working with the child’s family members at Inverness Presbyterian Church around 11:35 a.m. Moments after, a woman in the group near the tree yelled, “No, no, no, no,” and sank to the ground, surrounded by others.

“It’s a bad day,” Smith said.

Lynch Cove connects to Bear Creek, a tributary of the Patapsco River. The area is home to Lynch Cove Park, Inverness Park and West Inverness Park Boat Ramp. It is not known how deep the water was where Traore was found.

“Unfortunately, that’s what we see once the weather warms up,” Francis said, encouraging parents to do everything they can to not leave their children near the water unsupervised during the summer months.

Dundalk resident Dwayne Van Pelt Sr., who saw the news on a Dundalk-area community Facebook post, said he remembers hearing about previous drownings in Lynch Cove in his 31 years of living in the area. He said he has come to help with search and rescue efforts if civilian help is requested.

“Kids go down there. They dive off the pier, they go swimming,” said Van Pelt Sr. “The child was non-verbal. How do you call for help?”

This story may be updated.