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

A Gainesville police investigator found a man and a child dead in Gainesville on Oct. 14 while looking for a father and son missing from Norman, Oklahoma, the department said in a release. Police did not say whether the two were the missing pair. They left positive identification to the medical examiner.

The release gave no cause of death. Police said Texas Rangers are assisting.

Oklahoma's endangered-missing advisory named the two people being sought as Caleb Furley, 25, and his 4-year-old son, Andres "Harry" Furley. According to the advisory, the boy was last seen with his father around 7 p.m. Oct. 11, and Norman police took the missing-person report the next day. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol issued the advisory Oct. 13 for Norman police. It said an extensive search had not found the pair and that officials were concerned for their welfare.

An Oklahoma AMBER Alert dated Oct. 14 said Caleb Furley had not shown up for an exchange with the child's mother and was wanted on a warrant for parental kidnapping. The alert describes an allegation and a warrant, not a conviction.

Gainesville police said their own search started two days before the discovery. On Oct. 12, officers got a report of suspicious contact involving a man and a child. They searched right away and used a drone, but did not locate the man and child. At about 1:30 a.m. Oct. 14, a relative gave police information about the missing father and son.

After a business on North Grand Avenue opened that day, an investigator reviewed its surveillance video from Oct. 12. Police said the video showed two people who appeared to be the missing pair walking away. A search of the surrounding area then turned up the bodies.

Oklahoma's published alert criteria set a lower bar for an endangered-missing advisory than for an AMBER Alert. An advisory can go out for an endangered child who does not meet AMBER standards. An AMBER activation requires a reasonable belief that the child was abducted and faces imminent danger of serious injury or death. It also requires enough descriptive detail and an entry in the National Crime Information Center.

In February 2026, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children called family abductions its second-largest category of missing-child cases and said they account for nearly half of AMBER Alerts. The organization cautioned that being with a parent does not mean a missing child is safe.

The alert system began in North Texas. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, it started in the Dallas-Fort Worth area after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was kidnapped in Arlington in 1996 and died. Texas created its statewide network by executive order in 2002 and put it into law the next year. In 2023, after 7-year-old Athena Strand was kidnapped and killed in nearby Wise County, the state expanded local authority. A local agency can now request an alert before every requirement is verified if its chief law enforcement officer believes one is warranted.

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