Police employed a specialist company to search the sewer network between the boy’s home and where he was found for clues to how he got lost.
Joe was last seen around 6 p.m. local time on the day of his disappearance on a property near a drain pipe with a diameter of 100 centimeters (39.3 inches).
“Investigators therefore consider it highly probable that Joe climbed into this concrete pipe while playing,” the statement said. “It can now be assumed that Joe has increasingly lost his bearings in the system and could no longer find an exit.”
After apparently climbing along the pipe for 23 meters (75 feet), police said he followed the sewer system through a plastic pipe with a diameter of just 60 centimeters (23.6 inches). Some of his clothes were found in this pipe.
The boy was able to move through sewer shafts and junctions to reach the area under the manhole cover where he was found.
At one point, officers launched a homicide investigation after receiving a tip that the boy had been seen in the company of an unknown person, which later proved false.
As for Joe, he remains in the hospital and is receiving treatment but hasn’t yet been able to tell the police his full story in detail.
Andy Eckardt contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
