BUFFALO, N.Y. — Police are trying to identify bodies found in a burned-out vehicle while a Florida woman tries to reunite with her 3-year-old grandson found alone in upstate New York.
Police believe the 3-year-old Central Florida boy was on a road trip with his parents and their friend.
The adults are still considered missing, and police in Buffalo, New York, are trying to piece together whether they are the ones who were found in the burning vehicle.
Police said the vehicle was burned so badly, they do not know how many people's remains were inside.
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"There was very, very little of anything recognizable left of the vehicle or its contents so it is going to be a painstaking process to go through that and make determinations of exactly what was inside the vehicle," said Capt. Jeff Rinaldo with the Buffalo Police Department
Investigators received a call about a little boy found sleeping on a stranger's porch Monday morning.
Then Monday night, they found what was left of a charred vehicle.
They believe the car fire started around 3 a.m. Monday, but no one reported seeing the car on fire.
Family members in Florida are anxiously awaiting a reunion with Noelvin.
Child Protective Services in New York temporarily denied one of the boy's grandmothers custody Tuesday. Officials said they first want to visit to her Orlando home.
“We're heartbroken, we're worried, we're scared,” said Jorge Oquendo, Noelvin’s grandfather.
There are mixed emotions from Oquendo, after learning his grandson was found alone, and asleep in a box on someone's porch.
That's nearly 1,200 miles away from the boy's home in Longwood.
“I said, ‘Where's your mommy, honey?’ He says, ‘The car's on fire, the car's on fire.’ That's all he kept saying,” said Lois Augsburger, the woman who found the boy.
"I've been crying since Monday... crying since Monday over it."
Buffalo police said later that night, they found the burned-out vehicle in a wooded area about a mile from where the boy was found and inside, what appear to be human remains.
While they try to identify those remains, investigators are searching for the boy's parents: Nicole Plaud and Miguel Valentin-Colon.
They said the family had been traveling together with a friend.
“We're all devastated,” Oquendo said. “We're all devastated for a lot of reasons. We have no answers, we don't know what happened. We don't know if it happened.”
Oquendo said his daughter last heard from Miguel on Sunday night.
She became suspicious when Miguel's phone kept going straight to voicemail.
The boy's grandmothers flew to Buffalo as soon as he was found.
“They were great parents, I have nothing bad to say, so I don't know,” said Noelvin’s grandmother, Zenaida Colon.
Relatives said they didn't know the family was going out of town, but it wasn't unusual from them to take road trips.
Investigators spent Tuesday night scouring for surveillance video in the area where this all happened.
Channel 9 spoke with one of Plaud's neighbors in Longwood who said he was close to Plaud and her son, and had known her for seven years.
"They were like almost family with me. She’d always call me every day or come over and see me," neighbor Bill Dracksley said.
He said he saw Valentin-Colon and Plaud several days ago and never saw anything suspicious at their home.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Buffalo police at 716-851-4466.
Channel 9 reporter Michael Lopardi is on the ground in Buffalo, New York.
Check back and watch Channel 9 Eyewitness News for live updates on this developing story.
Cox Media Group
