Mother of 4-year-old missing boy speaks out as the search for her son continues

CLAYTON, Ala. (WTVY) - Time is ticking as the frantic search for a four-year-old autistic boy continues.

“Heartbreaking, distraught. I think I am in shock right now because I can’t feel anything,” Shyanne Ray, the mother of Phenix Wilkerson, said about the range of emotions she has experienced since her son’s disappearance.

Ray has not seen her four-year-old since around midday on Friday.

She left the camper to go to her mother’s nearby home, leaving Phenix in the care of a friend.

Shyanne said in the time it took her to walk to her mother’s home on Sid Bush Road and back, Phenix vanished from the camper they were staying in.

“I came back up here and saw that the door was open. I ran in there, and he wasn’t there so I looked everywhere around the house for him and did not see him,” Ray said.

After an unsuccessful search with her mother, Ray contacted law enforcement.

Since then, volunteers have teamed up with law enforcement from the state and counties such as Dale and Coffee to search for the missing boy.

Sheriff Tyrone Smith said searchers were out looking on Friday until 3 A.M. The search resumed at 8 A.M. on Saturday.

“We have done air searches. There are three bodies of water and surrounding properties and behind that property, we have had divers in there. We have people walking the properties all the way around,” Smith said.

Despite the effort and resources put towards finding him, Phenix Wilkerson is still missing.

“I just worry about him being out there all by himself,” Ray said about her son who is autistic.

“I don’t know where he is at. It is cold and it rained... I am just worried,” Ray added.

Phenix is nonverbal but does respond to his name, according to Ray.

Information on his whereabouts should be reported to 911.

WATCH: Full interview with mother of missing 4-year-old autistic boy

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