Man and child found dead in Gainesville during search for missing father and son
Police say the medical examiner will confirm who the two are. The Texas Rangers are helping with the active investigation.
Gainesville police found the bodies of a man and a child on Oct. 14 while they searched for a missing father and son, the department said in a statement that day. Police said the medical examiner will make the positive identification. The release gave no cause or manner of death.
The department called the investigation active and said the Texas Rangers are assisting.
Oklahoma authorities issued an AMBER Alert the same day for Andres "Harry" Furley, 4. The alert named the boy's father as Caleb Furley, 25. It said he did not appear for an exchange with the child's mother and that a warrant for parental kidnapping was outstanding against him. The reported warrant does not establish guilt. The alert gave the boy's last known location as Norman, Oklahoma, at 7 p.m. Oct. 11.
Gainesville police said they received a report on Oct. 12 of suspicious contact involving a man and a child at a North Grand Avenue business. An officer searched with a drone but found no one.
Early on Oct. 14, a relative contacted police, the department said. Investigators then reviewed surveillance video that appeared to show the missing pair. A search of the surrounding area led officers to the bodies.
The department described the missing father and son and the discovery in one statement. That statement did not identify the two people found as the Furleys and left that finding to the medical examiner.
The alert system has North Texas roots. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, it began in Dallas-Fort Worth after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted and murdered in Arlington in 1996. Texas built a statewide network in 2002 and wrote it into law the next year.
A case in nearby Wise County changed the rules again. A law named for Athena Strand, 7, who was kidnapped and murdered there in 2022, took effect June 13, 2023, DPS said. Under it, a local police chief can start an alert before the standard criteria are verified. The alert then covers a 100-mile radius and the adjacent counties.
Oklahoma publishes its own criteria. They call for a reasonable belief that an abduction occurred and that the child faces imminent danger of serious injury or death, along with enough description for the public to act on.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children recorded 37 originating alerts in Texas in 2025, compared with one in Oklahoma, two in Arkansas and three in Louisiana. Texas accounted for 27 percent of the national total. Those are alert counts, not population-adjusted abduction rates.
Texas issues far more AMBER Alerts than its neighbors
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National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 2025 Annual AMBER Alert Report
Far ahead of its neighbors
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| Label | Originating AMBER Alerts |
|---|---|
| Texas | 37 alerts |
| Louisiana | 3 alerts |
| Arkansas | 2 alerts |
| Oklahoma | 1 alerts |
Excluding alerts later classified as hoaxes or unfounded, the center's 2025 report categorized 67 cases as family abductions and 43 as nonfamily abductions at initial intake.
AMBER Alert cases categorized as family abductions at initial intake in 2025
Compared with 43 nonfamily abductions, excluding alerts later classified as hoaxes or unfounded.
DPS cautions that labels such as Found or Discontinued on an alert are preliminary and unofficial. An alert can end because someone was found alive, is believed deceased, or the alert is no longer needed even though the person remains missing. The investigating agency must confirm how a case ended.
_Editor's note: Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law._
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