Body of missing boy found

Body of missing boy found

July 18, 2005

CARTER COUNTY (WATE) -- A statewide Amber Alert was cancelled Monday after the body of a six-year-old boy was found in Watauga Lake. Authorities say he drowned in the lake.

A TWRA Search and Rescue team found the body of Charles Dillon Johnson, who goes by the name "Dillon," after an intensive search in the area.

Dillon, who is from Greene County, had been missing since Saturday while hiking with friends in the Shook Branch area of Watauga Lake near the Oliver Hollow and Highway 321 intersections.

A TBI investigator told 6 News it appears the boy drowned.this just hours after the Amber Alert was issued. Police feared at the time he had been kidnapped.

There was a report that he had been seen talking to two men in a vehicle with Florida license plates.

But Monday the TBI says those people came forward after hearing media reports about the Amber Alert. Authorities determine they were not connected to the boy's disappearance.

Police then went back to the lake because the Florida men told investigators they talked with Dillon while he was swimming in the lake. The men said they told him to get out of the water before they left.

6 News reporter Erica Estep contributed to this report.