Missing 4-year-old’s death in Hurricane ruled accidental, police say

Kache Wallis, 4, location, date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Hurricane Police Department, St. George News

ST. GEORGE —Additional information has been released on the missing 4-year-old who was later found dead in his Hurricane home over the weekend.

Kache Wallis, 4, location, date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Hurricane Police Department, St. George News

Hurricane Police put out a plea for help Sunday just afternoon when 4-year-old Kache Wallis was reported missing. By 1 p.m., the department stated the boy had been found. Five hours later, the information was updated to reflect that Wallis had been found dead inside of his home, but no further details had been released pending the investigation.

On Wednesday afternoon, a statement was released that provided further details of the series of events that took place during the incident, which began Sunday when officers responded to a report of the missing 4-year-old.

The missing child’s grandmother reported the child was last seen when she put him to bed the night before, but when she went to check on him the following morning, the child was not in his bed nor was she able to find the child during a search of the home.

A more thorough search was conducted with the help of other family members and friends – efforts that were unsuccessful in locating the boy. The family then reached out to the Hurricane Police Department for help.

When officers arrived, they were unable to locate the child during a subsequent search of the interior of the home, which is when various agencies and additional resources were called in to assist in a search of the home’s exterior and surrounding properties. Members of the community also stepped in to help.

When searchers were still unable to locate the child, investigators decided to conduct another search of the inside of the residence, which is when detectives located the child dead inside of a small toy chest in his bedroom.

Hurricane Police Officer Dan Raddatz told St. George News the lid to the toy chest somehow became stuck, which prevented the child from lifting the lid or from getting himself out of the chest on his own.

Later that same day, Raddatz said, the body was sent to the Utah Medical Examiner’s Office where an autopsy was conducted to determine the cause of death as part of the ensuing investigation.

On Wednesday, following interviews with the family and the findings from the medical examiner, the child’s death was determined to be an accidental death that resulted from positional asphyxiation. 

“Our sincerest condolences are sent to Kache and his family,” the statement said.

The Hurricane Police Department also stated that multiple agencies assisted with the incident, including the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, the search and rescue team, Hurricane Valley Fire District, the St. George Communications Center, St. George Police Department and the Washington City Police Department, as well as the Hurricane community that stepped in to help with the search.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.

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