Tragic end to frantic search for South Carolina boy, 8, who vanished after running away from school

The frantic search for an eight-year-old boy who went missing after running away from his South Carolina elementary school has come to a heartbreaking end.

The body of Lionel Ramirez Cervantes was discovered in a body of water just hours after he vanished. The boy was last seen on the playground at Bell's Crossing Elementary School in Simpsonville on Thursday morning.

He reportedly ran away from school officials at around 11.10am, sparking a desperate search . Staff had chased after the young boy but he climbed a fence and managed to disappear before they could catch up with him.

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Lionel had autism and was non-verbal, according to the Greenville County Sheriff's Office. Between 50 to 100 deputies were deployed alongside K-9s to search for the eight-year-old.

Local volunteers also assisted in the search. It came to a sad end when a local dive team found Lionel's body in a pond located a short distance away from the school at around 3pm, authorities said.

The local sheriff's office announced the heartbreaking news in a post on social media. "The GCSO is heartbroken to report that 8-year-old Lionel Ramirez Cervantes, who ran off from Bells Crossing Elementary School, has been located in a body of water off Lenox Lake Drive, a short distance from the school," it said.

The post continued: "Lionel reportedly left out of the school and was last seen near the playground around 11:10am. Deputies responded to initiate search and rescue efforts and conducted those the entire day.

"Shortly after 3:00pm Lionel’s body was found by dive team members in a body of water off Lenox Lake Drive." The discovery came just hours after authorities released a surveillance photo of Lionel to help in the search, which pictured him in the clothes he'd been wearing that morning.

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"This is truly a terrible situation to be quite honest. At some point, we don't know how or why, he wound up in that pond," Sheriff Hobart Lewis said at a press conference. "There are a lot of broken hearts in the school and this community today, we want to thank the community who came out to search for this young man."

W. Burke Royster, Greenville County Schools Superintendent also paid tribute to the young boy. "Words are just not sufficient to describe this tragedy. Our hearts and our prayers are with this family, this community, with this school community," he said.