'Missing' 3-year-old safe outside country

SMITHFIELD -- A 3-year-old boy reported missing Sunday is safe in another country, the Smithfield police chief said today.

Chief Steven Gillikin said this morning that Siraj Munir Davenport was never at a flea market in Smithfield where his mother claimed he had disappeared.

"The child is with family at this particular point," Gillikin said. "I'm not aware of exactly which family member he's with."

The boy, nicknamed "Raji," was reported missing Sunday from the Brightleaf Flea Market by his mother, Rosnah Hassan Thomason of Four Oaks. She told officers she was loading purchases into her vehicle when she realized her son was missing.

Gillikin said the case remained under investigation by the FBI. He said he could not discuss details because investigators are still trying to follow leads and verify information.

"This did not happen in Smithfield. It did not occur here, and it wasn't as it was originally reported," he said.

FBI agents spent several hours interviewing Thomason on Monday, Gillikin said.

State and federal prosecutors will decide whether she will face charges, he said. Authorities were not preventing her from having contact with her son.

Investigators are trying to determine the identity of the child's father, he said.

Officials discovered the child's whereabouts around midnight, he said. An Amber Alert for Raji was canceled about 12:30 a.m. today.

He did not say who took Raji out of the country. Gillikin said the boy was reported to have been in Johnston County at the end of last week.

Raji's reported disappearance triggered an outpouring by the community, with some people passing out fliers and going door-to-door to aid the search.

On Monday, a state Highway Patrol helicopter flew over the area and Johnston County sheriff's deputies led a ground search. On Monday night, employees from day care centers where Raji was enrolled organized a candlelight vigil attended by about 200 people in Four Oaks.

"There's been a lot of man-hours spent," Gillikin said. "There's been a lot of money spent. Unfortunately in situations like this, it makes the next one that much more difficult."

He said he was relieved Raji is safe, though he described the episode as "unfair."

"It's unfair to the community, it's unfair to the public, it's unfair to the business," he said, referring to the flea market, which had to close early on Sunday.

"It is a safe place. We never have problems down there," Gillikin said.