Grandfather: Remains found at New Mexico compound are missing boy

FAN Editor

Last Updated Aug 9, 2018 2:33 PM EDT

NEW YORK — The grandfather of a missing Georgia boy said Thursday the child’s remains were found buried at a desert compound in New Mexico, months after his mother reported that he had disappeared with his father, who had said he wanted to perform an exorcism on the child. 

Abdul-ghani Wahhaj’s remains were discovered Monday on what would have been his fourth birthday. He had been reported missing in December from Jonesboro, Georgia, near Atlanta.

The search for the boy led authorities to New Mexico last week, where a child’s remains were found in a ramshackle compound shielded by old tires, wooden pallets and an earthen wall studded with broken glass.

Authorities have yet to publicly identify the body. 

“The Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI) continues to work to identify the human remains found at the Amalia complex near Taos,” Kurt Nolte, chief medical investigator at the OMI, said Thursday in a statement. “The remains are in a state of decomposition that has made identification challenging.”

The statement said that investigators “are using all known methods to make an identification, adding, “this will not be a quick process.”

But the child’s grandfather, Siraj Wahhaj, who leads a well-known New York City mosque, told reporters he had learned from other family members that the remains were his grandson’s. He said children living at the compound said the boy was buried there after he died.

“Whoever is responsible, then that person should be held accountable,” Wahhaj said.

A Georgia arrest warrant accused the boy’s father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, the imam’s son, of kidnapping the child. It said the father at some point had told his wife that he wanted to perform an exorcism on the child. He later said he was taking the child to a park and didn’t return.

The father was among five people arrested on suspicion of child abuse at the compound, where authorities say 11 hungry children were found living in filth. Prosecutors seeking to keep Wahhaj behind bars said in court documents that he had been training children at the compound to carry out school shootings.

The mother of Abdul-ghani said he had severe medical issues, including a defect caused by lack of oxygen and blood flow around the time of birth. She said he cannot walk and requires constant attention. 

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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