Police released a sketch Saturday of an 11-year-old autistic Brooklyn boy who has gone missing — whose mother has denied to police that she has a son — in hopes someone will recognize him.
Jacob Pritchett, 11, was reported by police to have last been seen residing with his mother inside their home near East New York and Howard Aves. in Brownsville. The youngster is said by police to be nonverbal and unable to provide identifying information.
Described as having a medium complexion, brown eyes and black hair, Jacob may have been missing for more than a month and perhaps since as long ago as mid-August, cops and a police source with knowledge of the case said.
Asked why police provided a sketch rather than a photograph of the boy, a department spokesperson said, “That’s all we have at this time. What we have, we put out.”
It wasn’t immediately clear when Jacob was last seen, though neighbors told responding officers they haven’t seen the child for at least six weeks, possibly eight, police sources said.
“We’d be chilling outside, and you’d see the boy in the window,” neighbor Evelyn Rolon, 49, said. “He had a little car he played with. He never came out. He didn’t go to school.”
“It’s horrible,” she said about the boy going missing.
The city’s Administration for Children’s Services first got wind of the missing child on Sept. 25, when they received a phone call on a state hotline from a person concerned about the boy’s well-being, police sources said.
ACS investigators then visited the home that same day but the mother refused to let them in. Once cops were called to the scene, the mother allowed the officers and investigators inside, but claimed she could not physically have children and didn’t have a child.
ACS investigators returned to the apartment at 1:33 p.m. this past Wednesday, again accompanied by police.
When she opened the door, the mother repeated that she didn’t have a child, even though investigators confirmed that she did. She let the police into the apartment, but Jacob was nowhere to be found, a police source said.
As cops thoroughly searched the building, as well as nearby dumpsters — even recruiting NYPD K9 police dogs to help in the search — officers took the mother to the 73rd Precinct stationhouse. She was ultimately taken by medics to Brookdale University Hospital for evaluation.
A green police seal was later placed on the door of the apartment where Jacob and his mother lived.
Anyone with information regarding the missing boy and this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477)
