The Oak Ridge Police Department is working with a national center to find a child who was last seen in Oak Ridge in 2016 and to identify a newborn baby found floating along the shoreline of Melton Hill Lake almost three years ago.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has posted information about the two children on its website, which is partially funded through a U.S. Department of Justice grant.
In the first case, investigators said Maria Contreras Lopez was last seen in Oak Ridge on September 29, 2016. She was born August 9, 2000, and was 16 years old when she was last seen. She would be 22 now. Maria is female and Hispanic with brown hair and eyes. She could be about 5’3″ and 115 pounds.
In the second case, investigators said a fisherman found the body of the newborn baby floating along the banks of Melton Hill Lake on March 26, 2020. The male child was found near the intersection of Melton Lake Drive and Edgemoor Road in Oak Ridge. Authorities have named the infant child “Baby Wyatt,” meaning “little warrior.” He was less than one day old and was estimated to be about 34 weeks gestational age with black, fine, abundant, curly hair, investigators said.
“Unfortunately, due to environmental conditions, his race is currently unknown,” investigators said.
A long-sleeve, dark-colored plaid shirt was recovered with the unidentified newborn. Authorities have provided a digitally created image of the shirt and a facial reconstruction of Baby Wyatt from a NCMEC forensic artist, showing what he might have looked like when alive.
Authorities are actively collaborating with external forensic professionals to identify Baby Wyatt through forensic genealogy, investigators said.
On Tuesday, ORPD Lieutenant Roy Heinz said both cases are active investigations. He said ORPD is working with NCMEC, and working with investigative partners, ORPD Investigator Jason Robbins wrote the narrative for the Baby Wyatt poster on the NCMEC website.
The ORPD and the center are asking for your help. If you have information or tips, you can call 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST) or the Oak Ridge Police Department at 1-865-425-3504 or 1-865-425-4399, or you can send an email to policetips@oakridgetn.gov.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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