'HE WAS JUST GONE': Boy, 3, found dead after vanishing in Mississauga park

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A three-year-old boy was playing with other children in Erindale Park playground Thursday evening and then, in the blink of an eye, he was gone.

Zaid Abdullah’s disappearance at 6:20 p.m. sparked a massive search by Peel Regional Police of the dense brush and wooded area in the park and through the Credit River – near Dundas St. W. and Mississauga Rd. – that ended 23 hours later when the toddler’s body was found in the water.

“This is a tragedy,” an officer at the park told reporters Friday evening. “And we want to support the family as best we can during this time.”

Earlier in the day, the boy’s mother Eslam Adam clutched her phone tightly, showing off recent pictures of her son who was wearing a yellow top, black track pants and blue running shoes before he vanished.

Covering her pregnancy bump, Adam explained her son and husband, Mohammad, had only been in Canada for about six weeks after arriving from Jordan.

Eslam said she and a few other mothers went to Erindale Park on Thursday with five other children to visit the playground area.

“In five or six seconds he is gone,” Adam said.

She figured her son was running around the bushes near the playground with the other kids – but after he wasn’t seen for about five minutes, everybody fanned out looking for him.

“We looked under the benches, the river and outside on the road (Dundas St.),” Adam said, explaining police were then alerted.

“This park is big,” she added.

When asked how she felt about her son, Adam said, “Oh my God,” and started to cry. She then apologized because she was embarrassed by her crying.

Adam described her son as a happy little boy who liked sports and being with other children.

Police combed the area on foot, hoof, in the air and in the fast moving waters, with their focus on a large dam or weir further up stream from Dundas St. that was congested with debris and trees from the recent torrential rainfalls.

Adam’s husband ventured down to the river pouring cold water on his head in the afternoon heat, and staring at the river, before coming back to sit in the shade of a pavilion and speak to an Arabic-speaking police officer.

A concerned woman walking through the park came over with two little blue running shoes and asked Adam if they were her son’s shoes.

She nodded and the woman placed the shoes on the picnic bench saying, “I hope you find him,” before walking off.

Monica Catto was in the park for her daily morning hike when she heard a drone and helicopter overhead and did her part to help search for the child.

“As a parent it is your worst nightmare, to lose a child,” said Catto, adding she hopes the boy is found safe.

“That is my little prayer,” she said.

Catto said she has walked through the park for about 15 years.

“I sort of know all the little nooks and crannies,” she said.

Catto said when she saw police, Mississauga Fire and EMS searching, she explained all the recent flooding has changed the park – some paths aren’t there anymore and there is a lot of debris everywhere.

The officer speaking to media at the scene Friday evening explained that the area where debris had collected was where the boy’s body was found around 5:40 p.m.

“He was deceased in the water and we’re treating this as a tragedy for the family,” the officer said.

jboland@postmedia.com