JOHNSTON, R.I. (AP) - Two men were arrested in a double homicide and the abduction of a 2-year-old boy from a Rhode Island home, while police continued Sunday to search "any place and every place" for the child, local police said.
The search for the boy, Isaiah Perez, began after two bodies were discovered about 5:20 a.m. at a home in Johnston, a town of 30,000 residents less than 10 miles from Providence.
Johnston Deputy Police Chief Daniel Parrillo said investigators believe the two were killed between 4:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. and the boy was taken from the home. The names of the two dead were not immediately released.
By the afternoon, Malcolm Crowell, 22, was arrested in Fall River, Mass., and Daniel Rodriguez, 27 or 28, was arrested that evening in Providence, Parrillo said. Both suspects are from Providence, but Parillo would not say why police suspect the two or how they are related to each other or to the victims.
Investigators were working to determine the relationships among the boy, his abductor and the two homicide victims. Parrillo said it was unclear whether the boy's abductor was living in the home, was a guest or was uninvited.
"What he was doing there, we have no idea," Parrillo said earlier in the day. "We don't believe the child was harmed, and we're just hoping that he will be safely returned."
Authorities also were trying to obtain a photograph of the child to help with the search.
When the boy went missing, a nationwide Amber Alert was issued that identified the child and also named Crowell as a suspect.
Massachusetts State Police spokesman Dave Procopio initially said Crowell was captured in Fall River. But Procopio later backtracked and would only say he was told the man in custody wasn't involved in the child's disappearance. Parrillo said Sunday evening that he couldn't explain the confusion among Massachusetts State Police surrounding Crowell's status as a suspect.