Updated story
The day after murder charges were filed in the case, the search for a missing Chicago-area child in a landfill has been suspended, officials announced Sunday evening.
Demetries Thorpe, 26, of Zion, Ill., was charged Saturday with first-degree murder and ordered held on $5 million bond in connection with the disappearance of 5-month-old Joshua Summeries, who was last seen early Wednesday, NBC Chicago reports.
Police say Thorpe, the boyfriend of Joshua's mother, confessed to killing the boy and putting his body in a backpack, which he disposed of in a dumpster, according to the Daily Herald. Prosecutors claim Thorpe was shown throwing the backpack in a dumpster in surveillance footage they obtained.
The search for Joshua had zeroed in on one area within a massive landfill facility on Green Bay Road in Zion, about 10 minutes from the boy's home, the Chicago Tribune previously reported. But that search has been called off.
"The search and recovery efforts for Joshua Summeries have been terminated at the Zion landfill. Sadly, Joshua was not located," Zion Police Chief Wayne Brooks said in a news release reported by the Herald.
According to Fox Chicago, Thorpe allegedly placed his hand over Joshua's mouth when he was crying, causing the child to stop breathing. When Joshua's mother asked him what happened, he allegedly made up the abduction story.
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