Moms assist search for 3-year-old

SMITHFIELD -- A group of mothers pitched in today to help authorities as the search continued for a 3-year-old boy who went missing Sunday morning from a Smithfield flea market.

Mothers were handing out flyers at local stores and going door-to-door at a trailer park near the Brightleaf Flea Market on U.S. 301, where the child was last seen.

"There's got to be somebody who knows something," said Caren Wharton 34, a mother of four who was handing out fliers this afternoon at the Carolina Pottery Outlet. "I feel if we could find that one person who knows something, we are moving in a good direction."

Police said they have little information to guide them in their search.

Smithfield Police Chief Steve Gillikin said officers from his department as well as the Johnston County Sheriff's Office and the State Bureau of Investigation remain at the flea market.

From a command post at the scene, which borders the Neuse River, officers are conducting a two-pronged investigation, he said.

"We're approaching it from the perspectives of both a missing person case and a possible abduction," Gillikin said.

The Highway Patrol this morning joined in the search by helicopter.

An Amber Alert remains in effect for Siraj Munir Davenport of Four Oaks, who police say wandered from his mother's side late Sunday morning as she loaded the family car. Sgt. R.L. Capps, the lead investigator in the case, said Sunday that the boy's mother waited about an hour before calling authorities. He said the boy's mother and her friends tried to find her son first.

Tammy Locklear, 38, a friend who works with Siraj's mother, said it is unlikely that the three-year-old would wander off on his own.

"He asks his mom before he does anything," she said. "Never would he walk away from his mom."

Locklear said that she and Siraj's mother had planned a cookout for Sunday night, and that Siraj's mother was shopping for vegetables for the meal Sunday when her son went missing.

Siraj Davenport, who also answers to "Raji," is about 3 feet tall and weighs 35 pounds. He has dark brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a light-blue shirt imprinted with a yellow truck, dark blue sweatpants and blue Adidas tennis shoes.

"It is like somebody has torn your heart out when you don't know where your children are," said Wendy Ivey, 48, who was going door-to-door at a trailer park this afternoon in hopes of finding a clue to the child's whereabouts.

Police have set up special tip lines for anyone who might have information about the child. Tipsters can call 989-5729 or 989-5740.