Man and child found dead in Gainesville during search for missing Norman boy and his father

A Gainesville police investigator found a man and a child dead on Oct. 14 while searching for a 4-year-old boy from Norman, Oklahoma, and his father, the department said in a release that day. Police did not confirm that the two were the missing pair. The release left positive identification to the medical examiner.

Texas Rangers are assisting the investigation, according to the release. It did not give a cause or manner of death.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol issued an AMBER Alert on Oct. 14 for Andres "Harry" Furley, 4. The alert named his father, Caleb Furley, 25, as the adult the boy was last with. According to the alert, the father failed to appear for an exchange with the child's mother and was the subject of a parental-kidnapping warrant. Those are statements in the alert.

Gainesville police said in the release that they received a report on Oct. 12 of a suspicious contact involving a man and a child at a business on North Grand Avenue. An officer searched with help from a drone and did not find them. The release said the AMBER Alert was already active when officers contacted a relative at about 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 14. On Oct. 14, an investigator reviewed the business's surveillance footage and searched the surrounding area. The bodies were found in that search.

An Endangered Missing Advisory dated Oct. 13 said Andres was last seen with his father in Norman at about 7 p.m. on Oct. 11. It said Norman police received the missing-person report on Oct. 12. The Oklahoma Department of Public Safety uses that type of advisory for endangered children 17 or younger who do not meet AMBER criteria. An AMBER Alert requires, among other conditions, a reasonable belief that an abduction occurred and that the child is in imminent danger of serious injury or death.

The alert system has North Texas roots. The Texas Department of Public Safety says the program began in the Dallas-Fort Worth area after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted and killed in Arlington in 1996. Texas set up a statewide network in 2002 and wrote it into law in 2003. After the 2022 kidnapping and murder of Athena Strand in nearby Wise County, a 2023 Texas law let a local law-enforcement chief start an alert before every criterion is verified. The Furley alert came from Oklahoma.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children says alerts can cross state lines through coordination among state plans, and that each one is aimed at the area the investigation points to, never issued nationwide. The center's 2025 report counted 37 Texas-originated alerts, about 27 percent of the national total. Oklahoma originated one.

Gainesville police ask anyone with information to call 940-668-7777. Tips can be given anonymously at 940-612-0000.

_Editor's note: Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law._