The FBI and Pennsylvania State Police have joined the search for missing Philadelphia toddler King Hill, police announced Monday.
King was reported missing from his home along Page Street near 31st Street in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood around 9:50 a.m. on Tuesday, July 7.
A witness also told police they had last seen the child on July 4.
King's mother, Amber Hill, told NBC10 that she actually last saw her son in early June when she left him off with his stepfather, a trusted father figure who he normally spends time with.
"I miss him a lot," a distraught Hill said.
Hill said she became alarmed last week when the stepfather texted to say he had dropped off King with a babysitter. Hill said she doesn't know the babysitter well. Police said the babysitter had cared for the child for two years.
The babysitter reportedly said she had dropped off King with his mother but Hill said she never saw her son.
"Somebody is not telling us the truth. Yes. That's correct," Philadelphia Police Capt. Mark Burgmann said. "Because the babysitter is saying she returned the child to the mother and mother is saying, 'No. She did not.'"
Hill doesn't believe King is hurt, but she is pleading for him to be returned home, posting flyers in the neighborhood. She said she took a lie detector test and told investigators everything she knows.
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"They were looking at me like I did something to him," Hill said while in tears. "But I would never do nothing to none of my kids."
He didn’t wander off and the Special Victims Unit is handling the active search for King, police said. Sources said part of the investigation is sorting out King's whereabouts prior to going missing.
On Monday, a search party of several dozens people searched for King along Boxer's Trail in Fairmount Park.
Investigators could be seen searching for clues in the neighborhood Thursday morning. Thursday evening, detectives searched a location near 53rd and Montgomery in Wynnefield. Sources told NBC10 the location is the home of the babysitter. A woman who did not want to be identified told NBC10 the missing child looked familiar.
"There was a party there not too long ago and I seen that kid running around," she said. "I definitely seen that baby."
King stands 3-feet and weighs 32 pounds with a light brown complexion, brown eyes and black hair. He was last seen wearing an orange and tan striped shirt, khaki cargo pants, grey hooded sweatshirt and sneakers.
Anyone who spots King Hill should call SVU investigators at 215-685-3251 or call 911.
