Feb 10, 2008 1:00 pm US/Eastern
Sonar Aids In Search For Missing Child
BALTIMIORE (WJZ) ―
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Rescue workers are using the side scan sonar in the search for a three-year-old believed to have been thrown over the Key Bridge.
Under the frigid Patapsco waters, rescue workers hope to find any sign of a three-year-old boy missing since Sunday.
Gigi Barnett reports on Friday they initiated the use of a tool that can scan the bottom of the bay.
"It runs a beam across the floor of the water body and identifies various objects. Anything that stands out similar to what they're actually looking for, they will give a bit more concentration to that object and that specific area," said Baltimore City Fire Chief Kevin Cartwright.
It's called side scan sonar, and rescue workers successfully used it back in 2004 during a freak water taxi accident.
The equipment is on loan from Baltimore City Fire as long as it's needed.
"We'll work collectively until they're able to bring this to closure," said Cartwright.
The mission now is to find Turner Jordan Nelson.
Police believe his father, 37-year-old Stephen Nelson, hurled the toddler over the Key Bridge and into the water.
Shortly after, investigators say he swallowed bottles of household cleaner in an attempt to kill himself.
Police plan to charge him with murder once he wakes from a coma. First they want to find his son.
Natisha Johnson, the baby's mother, believes her son is still alive.
"I don't feel that disconnect from my son. I really feel he's still alive," she said.
She admits her relationship with Nelson was rocky, but she doubts he had the courage to toss Turner over the bridge.
"He wasn't a violent type person. I can't see him actually picking up our son up out of his car seat and tossing him away as if he was trash. I don't see him doing it," Johnson said.
Johnson believes police will find her baby alive and says she won't give up hope.
"I have to believe that he's there. That's he's somewhere just don't know where. But that he's somewhere. If I start believing the bad then I believe you speak things into existence," she said.
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