The NYPD and New York State Police are searching a landfill in upstate New York as part of their efforts to locate a missing 11-year-old autistic boy from Brooklyn, according to law enforcement sources.

Investigators have not disclosed why they are focusing on the High Acres Landfill in Parinton, located about 14 miles east of Rochester, though it serves as one of several disposal locations for waste from New York City.

The boy, Jacob Pritchett, has potentially been missing since mid-August, with his mother telling authorities that she did not have a child, sources revealed.

The city’s Administration for Child Services initiated an investigation into Jacob’s situation after receiving a tip through a state hotline expressing concerns about his well-being, police sources told the Daily News.

ACS investigators visited the Brownsville apartment of Jacob’s mother on Howard Ave. near East New York Ave. on Sept. 25 but couldn’t gain entry and requested police assistance. Upon arrival, NYPD officers were allowed inside the apartment, but the mother denied having any children.

Last week, ACS officials returned with police and investigators to search the apartment and nearby dumpsters, also using NYPD K-9 police dogs to aid in the search.

Officers took the child’s mother to the 73rd Precinct stationhouse, before she was sent with medics to Brookdale University Hospital for an evaluation.

NYPD released a composite sketch of the missing child on Saturday. When asked why a photograph of the child was not made available, a department spokesman replied: “That’s all we have at this time. What we have, we put out.”

Neighbors told responding officers they hadn’t seen the child for six to eight weeks, police sources said.

“We’d be chilling outside, and you’d see the boy in the window,” said neighbor Evelyn Rolon, 49. “He had a little car he played with. He never came out. He didn’t go to school.”

Rolon said she was shocked to learn the boy’s age, saying he appeared younger by his size.

“He was 11? He looked 7 or 8,” she said, adding about the missing child: “It’s horrible.”

Originally Published: October 9, 2025 at 9:20 PM EDT