Missing Miami-Dade child found 2,000 miles from home. Father and grandmother arrested

Jorge “JoJo” Morales, the 6-year-old South Miami-Dade boy missing since his father absconded with him in violation of court orders on Aug. 27, was found Sunday in Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Miami-Dade police said.

JoJo and his father, 45-year-old Jorge Morales, were spotted in Moncton, New Brunswick, the RCMP announced via Twitter. As Jorge Morales was being arrested there, the RCMP said, JoJo’s grandmother, 69-year-old Lilliam Peña Morales, was taken into custody in Saint-Paul, New Brunswick, about a 39-minute drive north of Moncton.

“The boy was found in good health and unharmed,” Miami-Dade police said.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) said a tipster saw JoJo and his father at a Walmart in Moncton, which is about 2,004 miles from where the South Miami-Dade apartment where Yanet Concepcion discovered her son was gone.

In a statement released through the NCMEC, Concepcion said, “OMG, I have no words! There is no way to simply say thank you to everyone! I mean, eternally grateful for the support of the community, and I’ve had people who don’t even know us posting fliers in Canada!

“I can’t believe this is over! The only reason why we’ve found him has been through the amount of shares and effort from everyone. I can’t stop shaking! I feel so blessed!”

This case involved, among many agencies, the Miami-Dade police; the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office; the FBI; U.S. Marshals Service; U.S. Border Patrol; the NCMEC; Maine State Police and, finally, the RCMP.

READ MORE: Walgreens video spots missing Miami-Dade boy and fugitive dad.

Divorce, disagreements over custody and autism

Miami-Dade County court records tell the story of a contentious custody fight since Concepcion filed for divorce from Morales in January 2019.

In November 2021, her emergency motion to have his time sharing rights with JoJo suspended eventually was granted after first getting denied. Concepcion also has said JoJo was autistic. One of the hearings canceled following Morales’ decision to disappear concerned a motion to have his rights for overnight visits reinstated and to have the court declare that JoJo wasn’t autistic after hearing testimony from his neurologists and speech pathologists.

But Concepcion has maintained she believes that Morales and his mother didn’t leave with JoJo impulsively. She thinks they had been planning for a year to skip town with the boy and live “off the grid.”

Online records from the Florida Department of Health indicate Jorge Morales let his nursing license fall into delinquency July 31. On Oct. 28, 2021, Jorge Morales and Lilliam Morales sold their residential home in Homestead that they’d bought on Sept. 21, 2020, turning a profit of $100,000. They then rented a spot in the South Point apartments in West Perrine. Renters who disappear aren’t leaving valuable real estate behind as an owner would be.

Without overnight rights, Morales should’ve brought JoJo back to Concepcion the night of Aug. 26. When he didn’t, Concepcion went to their apartment at 17870 SW 107th Ave. the following morning around 9:00.

The apartment was empty.

Miami-Dade police put out a missing child alert Aug. 29. An Amber Alert was issued three days later.

After U.S. Border Patrol found an SUV with some of JoJo’s belongings inside in Maine, investigators figured the trio was either in that state or Eastern Canada. The U.S. Marshals offered $5,000 rewards for information leading to the arrest of Jorge Morales and Lilliam Morales. With additional contributions, the reward went up to $25,000.

Last week, the FBI and the NCMEC released surveillance video that showed JoJo and Jorge Morales were in a Walgreens in Houlton, Maine on Aug. 29.

“This is another example how local, state, federal, and international law enforcement, along with the United States and State Attorney’s Office coming together for the safety of a child and will continue to work together to fight the greater evil,” Miami-Dade Police Director Freddy Ramirez said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story named the wrong Saint-Paul in Canada where Lilliam Morales was arrested.