The grandmother of Quinton Simon, a Georgia toddler who has been missing for nearly a week, thanked her supporters in a Facebook post on Tuesday, writing that “finally” she could “feel the calming peaceful sunshine hitting my face.”
Billie Jo Howell and her husband have legal custodianship of the missing 20-month-old and his brother. She took to Facebook on Tuesday afternoon to share a message that she said she had posted “years ago” and that “stands true today.”
“Seems there’s always a storm before the calm in my life. Boy let me tell you it felt like a tornado was spinning everything at once,” she wrote, alongside interspersed emojis. “Finally I feel the calming peaceful sunshine hitting my face.”
She added: “Those of you who stood with me and helped me through man y’all are amazing. I love y’all. You all know the parts you’ve played in my life. No matter what we been through I love you.”
It has been six days since the toddler was last seen. When Fox News reached out requesting a comment on the case, neither Howell nor her daughter, Quinton’s mother, responded.
The grandmother previously told local news station WJCL that she and her husband, Thomas Howell, are the legal guardians for Quinton and his three-year-old brother. She said at the time that her daughter “hasn’t always done the right thing.”
“Sometimes she does really great, sometimes she doesn’t,” Howell said. “I don’t know what to think right now. I don’t know what to believe, because I don’t think anybody ever believes this is going to happen to them.”
She added: “I don’t know if I can trust her or I don’t. I just know I’m hurting and I want this baby home. He’s my baby.”
Quinton’s mother called police around 9:40 a.m. last Wednesday, saying that her son was not inside their home in Savannah, police officials have said. He was reportedly last seen around 6 a.m. Wednesday when he was wearing a Sesame Street shirt and black bottoms. The FBI has since joined the case to work alongside police personnel in their urgent search.
Details of a dispatch call obtained by WJCL shed light on the moments the mother notified police that she couldn’t find her son.
“Complainant advised her 1-year-old son is missing,” the dispatcher could be heard saying, according to the report. “She woke up, her door was open. Advised he’s unable to open a door. Thinks someone came in and took him.”
Quinton reportedly lived at the home with his brother, his maternal grandparents, his mother and her boyfriend.
The Chatham County Police Department announced on Tuesday that investigators had “seized evidence” that they believed would help to “move this case forward.” It is currently unknown if any evidence of Quinton’s belongings were found in the search.
On Monday, Chief Jeffrey M. Hadley said more than 40 FBI agents were assisting police with the case, which has resulted in multiple interviews, searches and canvasses of several geographical areas. Police are also investigating the possibility of criminality related to the toddler’s disappearance, Hadley said.
“We’re looking at it from multiple fronts, one of it being a criminal investigation, as well as a missing child at this point,” he told reporters. “We don’t have anything confirmed, so we can’t say anything absolutely. But it is fair to say … that we are looking at the criminal investigation aspect of this.”
No criminal charges have been filed in this investigation so far. Police are asking anyone with information regarding Quinton Simon’s whereabouts to call 912-667-3134.
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