Missing child hoax post shares photo of boy who died in US

A Facebook post claiming to show a photo of a missing child found in Lowestoft in Suffolk is a hoax.

The post was shared in a public group for the local area and was captioned: “This little boy, approximately 3 years old, was found 1 hour ago in Lowestoft. Officers have the child safe at the Police Station but we have no idea where he lives. No one has called looking for him. Please Bump this post”. It shares a photo of a smiling young child in a red tracksuit.

However, this photo does not show a child found in Lowestoft. It actually shows two-year-old Montrell Williams, whose body was tragically found in the East River in New York, US, in June.

Suffolk Police, who are responsible for the Lowestoft area, confirmed they weren’t aware of any missing person reports that match this, and we could find no reports of any such missing child incident by the constabulary or local media. Moreover, the Facebook post has its comments section disabled, which Derbyshire Police Online Safety team has previously said may be a sign of a hoax.

A 2023 Full Fact investigation into these types of hoaxes, which featured in an episode of BBC One’s Rip Off Britain, found the posts are often edited later to promote something completely different, such as a property listing or cashback site.

You can find more of our work writing about these types of hoaxes on our website, including a guide with some tips on how to identify them.