Adron Benton is Vandergriff boy in likely drowning

Submitted photo.
Submitted photo.

FAYETTEVILLE — Adron Benton is the name of the 6-year-old Vandergriff Elementary boy who went missing from the school playground Tuesday afternoon.

The boy was found unresponsive in the swimming pool of a nearby residence. He was taken to Washington Regional Hospital and then to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, where he died Wednesday, officials said. Pulaski County Coroner Gerone Hobbs confirmed the boy’s identity.

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The cause of death has not been determined, Hobbs said.

Police continue to investigate and await a report from the Arkansas State Crime Lab, where the child’s body was sent for an autopsy, Fayetteville Sgt. Craig Stout said.

“It could take awhile,” Stout said.

Fayetteville Superintendent Matthew Wendt this week said Vandergriff staff noticed the boy was missing Tuesday when students lined up to go inside from a roughly 30-minute recess that began about 2 p.m. that day.

Fayetteville emergency officials responded to two related calls around 2:45 p.m. Tuesday.

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