Hundreds Search In Vain For Joe Clyde Daniels

CHARLOTTE, TN -- Nearly 500 people searched more than 5,000 rough-and-tumble acres of rural Dickson County Saturday, but found no trace of the body of missing 5-year-old Joe Clyde Daniels.

Volunteers stood at arm's length from one another in a massive line, scouring brambles, bushes and mud for any clues. They climbed up and down hills and over fences and creeks, searching for any sign of the boy the county sheriff calls "Dickson County's child."

"We are responsible for what we can do and must do to give him a final resting place and then move forward with the criminal investigation," Sheriff Jeff Bledsoe said, according to WSMV.

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Joe Clyde Daniels was reported missing by his parents from their home in rural Dickson County northwest of Nashville the morning of April 4, launching a massive search utilizing hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement officers. The boy's father, Joe Daniels, was arrested April 7, charged with beating his son to death and hiding his body. His mother, Krystal Daniels, was arrested two days later, charged with aggravated child neglect.

Joe Daniels did not initially offer detectives any tips as to where the body was, though that has changed in recent weeks, although none of the locations he's offered have "panned out," investigators say.

Photo via Tennessee Bureau of Investigation