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Maddox Ritch Investigation: FBI looking for more witnesses

Investigators say they need to hear from more people who visited Rankin Lake Park last Saturday, especially anyone jogging and a man in a white pick up truck who was loading a silver kayak.

GASTONIA, N.C. -- Just a week after 6-year-old Maddox Ritch and his mother moved out of their apartment in Concord, Emma Alexander now finds herself heartbroken about her former neighbor.

“My heart burst,” Alexander said about the discovery of the boy’s body Thursday.

Khdija Wakefield said she feels the same way. The woman was at Rankin Lake Park Saturday around the time Ritch disappeared.

“It hurts. It really hurts my feelings,” she said.

She believes she may have seen the boy.

“I saw a man and a woman and a little boy. They were walking towards the dock as we were leaving and they had stopped to look at the water moccasin and the geese because we stopped too,” she said.

"He was bending down to play with the rocks," she said.

Wakefield said she's shared that information with police.

“Whether it was their family or not, they were the only ones that I saw at the park."

On Friday, investigators again said they need to hear from more people who visited the park Saturday, especially anyone jogging and a man in a white pick up truck who was loading a silver kayak. Police say that man may have been one of the last people to see Ritch alive.

The FBI said investigators are still trying to determine how Ritch got into Long Creek creek.

The State Medical Examiners Office told us in general terms, every death case is unique and the length of time it takes to complete an autopsy varies accordingly.

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