HAMPTON, Va. — As the search continues for 4-year-old Codi Bigsby in Hampton, police are reaching out to neighbors and volunteers to help in the efforts.
“It’s heartbreaking to see when police knock on your door and then they show you a picture of one of the kids who play with your children,” said Tisha Hunt, a neighbor who lives at the Buckroe Pointe Apartment Townhomes.
She said her daughter, Dream, is a friend of Codi's and they play together often.
“All the kids in the neighborhood play together," she said. "They play outside in the yard, games.”
Hunt said sharing the news of Codi’s disappearance with her daughter broke her heart.
“She started crying so no kids wanted to come outside yesterday,” she said.
So Hunt is taking matters into her own hands by gathering parents from the neighborhood to search for Codi.
“The area around," she said. "We’re going to go to Buckroe Beach. We’re going to go all the way down to -- if I have to -- all the way down to the other end of Mallory. I mean, I’m just going to go around.”
She said the goal is to inform those who don’t know about the situation and get answers on where some people last saw Codi.
“We don’t have this type of stuff in our community and as a concerned parent, we’re just trying to help.”
Hunt said whatever she finds, she’ll share that information with the police.
“If that was my 5-year-old, I would want somebody to do this for my 5-year-old,” she explained.
Hampton Police asked for volunteers to help with the search. Within 15 minutes, the division announced they had 50 volunteers signed up to help with efforts to find Codi.
Police said if they need more volunteers, they will re-open the sign-up.