Family is calling for the child's safe return just hours before he was found safe

LIVINGSTON PARISH, La. (WAFB) – Livingston Parish Sheriff’s deputies, along with the FBI and U.S. Marshals, were searching Monday, Oct. 28, for a boy who had been missing since Sunday afternoon.

He was found Monday evening. LPSO Sheriff Jason Ard notified the media that he had been found safe around 6:22 p.m.

10-year-old Brody Sturdivant went missing from his home in Eastover Estates, a mobile home park in Denham Springs.

“We have a little boy named Brody Sturdivant. He was 10 years old and is missing. He’s been missing since noon yesterday. We were contacted last night around 11 p.m. which is not unusual for a family to call us later because at this point we think Brody, everyone thinks he just went missing after he ran away,” Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard said .

Sturdivant’s aunt and guardian Amanda Pearson says the boy is known to run away when he gets upset.

“He has some mental problems and he didn’t make the right decision after he was corrected for saying something he shouldn’t have said. I took the PlayStation and he thought it was the end of the world, and so he broke up, and that’s what happened,” Pearson said.

At a late morning press conference, Ard said that despite the possibility that he might have walked away on his own, they were taking this very seriously.

“Most of the evidence and information we have received is that this is not unusual for him to do this, but it takes a long time for him to go missing. This is not a matter of 2 hours, this has been since 12 noon yesterday, so we are already going at 24 hours,” Ard said.

As the search continued, his aunt made a plea to the public.

“Brody, if you see this, I just want to tell you that we love you, baby. And we want you to come home. And we know you’re hiding somewhere,” Pearson said. “He’s a stick of dynamite, but he’s my little dynamite, and I love him so much and I love you Brody, just come home, okay?”

“He’s been known to run away. Brody has done this before, like I said before. However, he may get scared, he may run away from you if you see him and try to approach him. The best thing to do if you actually see Brody, just let us know and we’ll get over there and see if we can try to talk him out of whatever area he’s in. And again, that’s our hope, that’s where Brody is right now,” Ard said.

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