Body of Adam Roach found in retention pond

LAKELAND (FOX 13) - Sheriff Grady Judd said the body of 6-year-old Adam Roach was found in a retention pond just 50 feet from the back door of his home.

Judd said it appears he walked out of the front door of his home, around to the back, and into the pond.

Previously, Sheriff Judd asked residents in a 3-mile radius of Carlton Arms of South Lakeland Apartments to search their back yards, pools, and land to make sure 6-year-old Adam Roach was not hiding or trapped somewhere near from where he went missing. 

Sheriff Grady Judd said Adam went missing around 3:30 p.m. Friday and a search quickly began. Judd said there were four ponds on the apartment complex's property and all were being searched with special equipment. Judd said one of the ponds is 11-feet deep. 

"We need the people in the community that live within a 3-mile perimeter... to go out in their back yard, look in their swimming pool, look underneath their cars, their bushes, any place that they may have in their yard that he could hide," Sheriff Judd explained. "Our hope and prayer is that he's wandered away and that he's scared and he's laying down in someone's back yard right now. But our worst fear is that he is in one of those ponds in the neighborhood." 

Judd said that Adam's grandmother had walked him past some community ponds on the way to the swimming pool the day before he went missing. Judd expressed concern that Adam may have fallen into one of those ponds while trying to return to that swimming pool on Friday.  

Sheriff Judd said that family and domestic issues had been ruled out and they believe Adam had simply managed to wander away. 

Judd said the family tells him that Adam is very loving and will go to people. He sometimes clings to people, as well. He said Adam functions as if he were an 18-month-old child.