Two-year-old Elton Bailey, the subject of a statewide AMBER Alert that was issued on Sunday evening, has been found safe.

At around 5:25 p.m. on Sunday, December 29, 2024, it was reported to the Knoxville Police Department that a gold 2002 Ford Explorer had been stolen from a home on Old State Road, and that Elton Bailey was inside of the vehicle.

It was further reported that Elton was with his grandfather, who briefly stopped at the home on Old State Road, quickly went inside the home, and left the Ford Explorer running with Elton still inside the vehicle. When Elton’s grandfather came out of the home, the Ford Explorer was gone and had presumably been stolen.

KPD Special Crimes Unit detectives responded to the scene while a large-scale search effort was mobilized, which included dozens of Field Operations and Investigations Bureau Officers as well as the KPD Search and Rescue and UAV teams. Those efforts were also heavily assisted by the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, including KCSO AirWatch, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Exhaustive search efforts persisted for well over three hours with no verified sightings of the vehicle until assisting KCSO personnel found the Ford Explorer in a muddy construction site near 212 Pelham Park Road, a short distance from where the SUV was reportedly last seen. The car was still running and Elton was found safe and unharmed inside of the vehicle.

The Special Crimes Unit is continuing their investigation to determine if somebody did briefly attempt to steal the vehicle or if it was potentially left in gear and rolled down several ravines into the construction area where it was found.

The Knoxville Police Department appreciates the public response to the AMBER Alert as well as all of the law enforcement agencies who assisted in the search.