Lonzie Barton: Missing Florida 19-Month-Old Left In Vehicle During Car Theft, Amber Alert Issued
Nineteen-month-old Lonzie Barton went missing when a car he was inside of was stolen out of a Jacksonville, Florida, apartment parking lot.
AL.com reports that the boy was in his mother’s boyfriend’s car early Friday morning. Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office reveal that an Amber Alert has been issued for the missing child. He was reportedly wearing just a diaper when he was taken.
Police were called at 2:20 a.m. about a car theft and that a young boy was inside the vehicle. Later on, the boyfriend’s car was found several blocks away, but the child wasn’t inside. Police have contacted the child’s father in Baker County, but he doesn’t have Lonzie.
As Fox 10 reports on the Amber Alert, Lonzie Barton has blonde hair, blue eyes, is about two-feet, six-inches tall and is around 20 pounds.
Anyone with information on Lonzie’s whereabouts are asked to contact the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office at 904-630-0500, or 911.
WTSP-10 identifies the mother’s boyfriend as William Ebron, Jr. Lonzie’s mother’s name is Lonna Lauramore Barton. Ebron was getting Lonzie and his five-year-old sister ready to pick up their mom from work. Ebron put the kids in the car, but had to run back into the apartment to get something. That’s when the girl went in to tell him that she was “scared.” Ebron went back outside and saw the orange-colored 1995 Honda Civic zoom off with Lonzie inside.
JSO Director Tom Hackney says it’s unknown how long both children were inside the car while their mother’s boyfriend went back inside the apartment. The car was found about 20 minutes later, several blocks away with no sign of Lonzie. There was a car seat inside the vehicle, but it wasn’t evident as to whether Lonzie was buckled up.
Ebron was apparently arrested on May 30 and ordered to have no contact with Lonna Barton and her sister, Tiffany Barton; he also had a 7 p.m. curfew. He told authorities that he dropped off Lonna at Wacko’s Gentlemen’s Club around 8:30 p.m. Thursday. He then went to a laundromat close by and headed back to the apartment to use powder cocaine. It was then that he left Lonzie Barton and his sister in the car while it was running. He said two minutes later he heard the car leave.
Detectives are looking at a surveillance video taken at 12:33 a.m. Friday. It shows Ebron going into a Kangaroo gas station located at Baymeadows and Old Kings Road.
According to the Amber Alert, anyone with information on Lonzie Barton can also email at JSOCrimeTips@jaxsheriff.org. For anonymous tips and possibly receive a reward up to $3,000, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS FREE.
[Photo Credit: Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement via Fox 10]
