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Police search upstate landfill for missing 11-year-old Brownsville boy

Authorities confirm the search for Jacob Pritchett, who is non-verbal and has autism, now includes a landfill in the town of Perinton, just outside Rochester.

Edric Robinson

Oct 10, 2025, 10:51 AM

Updated 3 hr ago

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Police are searching for an 11-year-old boy from Brownsville whose disappearance has taken investigators 300 miles upstate.
Authorities confirm the search for Jacob Pritchett, who is non-verbal and has autism, now includes a landfill in the town of Perinton, just outside Rochester. Video from Thursday shows police combing through the site but investigators have not said what led them there — only that “Jacob is still missing.”
According to sources close to the investigation, Jacob was first reported missing after a welfare check on Sept. 25 at his family’s apartment on Howard Avenue in Brownsville. Child welfare workers returned days later with police and found the apartment nearly empty — no food, no clothes, and toys lined up but unused.
Neighbors told News 12 they recall seeing a trash bin behind the building that gave off a strong odor a couple of days before the missing child report was filed.
Police say Jacob’s mother told child welfare workers she didn’t have a child, raising even more questions about when and how the 11-year-old disappeared.
A sketch of Jacob is being shared alongside a photo of his mother as part of the ongoing search.
As of Friday, it’s been more than two weeks since Jacob Pritchett was last seen.
Police say the investigation remains active both in Brooklyn and upstate.