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Search underway for 4-year-old Alabama boy missing since New Year's Eve

A search is underway in Alabama for a 4-year-old boy who has been missing since Wednesday morning, and whose father has been arrested on a separate explosives-related charge.

Johnathan Everett Boley was last seen at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday near Highway 195, in a wooded and rural area of Jasper, Alabama, according to theAlabama Law Enforcement Agency. Jasper is a small city located about 40 miles northwest of Birmingham.

He is described as white with blond hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a yellow Mickey Mouse shirt, black pants and Paw Patrol shoes.

Image: Johnathan Everett Boley (Alabama Law Enforcement Agency)

The Walker County Sheriff's Office received a call about the missing child around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sheriff Nick Smith told reporters Thursday.

Smith said it was reported to authorities that Johnathan was with his 6-year-old brother and their dog when he disappeared. It was not immediately clear where his older brother is.

Law enforcement searched Johnathan's home and launched an air and ground search using helicopters with thermal detection and canines that went until 3 a.m. and resumed later Thursday morning, Smith said.

Explosives-related charge

Smith told reporters that explosive devices were found on the child's father's property during the search and law enforcement had to "take care" of the devices before they could execute a thorough search warrant.

The father was arrested on an explosives-related charge, Smith said. He said the charge had "nothing to do" with the search for Johnathan, but "it is still a factor that is hindering our search," Smith said.

Smith described the father, whom he did not name, as being formerly in the military.

It's not clear why explosives were at the home.

"Neighbors have said they've been hearing explosions for weeks now. They didn't really know where it was coming from. The morning before the [missing person] report came in, one of the neighbors reported that they heard an explosion about 4 a.m. that morning, they just didn't know where it came from. Can't say that that's in any kind of connection to the missing child," Smith said.

Johnathan's parents are separated, and the child's mother moved to Florida last year. As part of the custody agreement the father was given five days a year for visitation, Smith said.

The mother went to Alabama from Florida on Wednesday evening and is cooperating with authorities, according to the sheriff. The father was interviewed by the FBI on Wednesday, he said.

The search

The area where Johnathan was reported missing is heavily wooded and rural.

Smith said there isn't any indication the child is in the woods, but they continue to search the area.

"We've got no thermal, no imagery from the helicopter and drones," he explained.

Smith also noted that the dog Johnathan was last with is still missing.

"Talking to one of the neighbors, that dog showed up pretty much every day on their game cameras at their corn feeder. The last time that he has the dog on his camera was on the 26th, the afternoon of the 26th," the sheriff said.

At least eight potential explosive devices were found across the street from the father's home in a wooded area, halting the volunteer search effort, Smith said.

The devices were later cleared as not explosive, and volunteers can recommence helping with the search at 7 a.m. Friday, he said.

Smith commended the support in the search saying 126 first responders from multiple nearby agencies and 161 volunteers helped cover over 500 acres on Thursday alone.

byAdministrator

in

January 01, 2026

Search underway for 4-year-old Alabama boy missing since New Year's Eve

A search is underway in Alabama for a 4-year-old boy who has been missing since Wednesday morning, and whose father has b...

People enter Quality Learning Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Tuesday, by which time work had been started to fix a misspelling on the sign. - CNN

It may now be the most famous – or infamous – sign in the country. Posted above a door on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, the Quality Learning Center was missing an "n."

For aconservative content creatorattempting to call out fraud – and the supporters who made his video on day care centers in Minneapolis' Somali community viral – it seemed too absurd not to mention.

"This is Quality 'Learing' Center," Nick Shirley said, pointing to the sign. "They spelled 'learning' wrong."

Shirley's 42-minute video posted the day after Christmas quickly spread, promptingstepped up immigration enforcement,frozen federal fundsand morebiting rhetoricagainst the Somali community from President Donald Trump.

Although Shirley's encounters with other businesses were often more dramatic, the misspelled sign and its locked door made Quality Learning Center a focus of criticism aimed at the state government and Gov. Tim Walz for a system opponents say has allowed fraud to run rampant in Minnesota.

"These are not real businesses," Shirleytold CNN's Whitney Wildthis week, pointing to the Quality Learning Center. A man identifying himself as a manager for the centertold a local TV stationthere was "no fraud going on whatsoever."

CNN is looking into Shirley's claims that this and other Minneapolis-area day care centers are committing fraud.

Federal law enforcement has beeninvestigating fraudin Minnesota forseveral years, and "98 individuals have been charged in our ongoing fraud against the government cases," Assistant US Attorney Melinda Williams told CNN Tuesday. No fraud charges have been filed against Quality Learning Center.

Records show the business has faced repeated questions of whether the service it is providing is meeting state standards, but none of the violations suggested fraud.

Here's what we know about the Quality Learning Center.

According to figures provided to CNN by the state House Republican Caucus, Quality Learning Center was set to receive $1.9 million from theChild Care Assistance Program– known as CCAP – for 2025. It has received nearly $10 million from CCAP since 2019, the document shows.

Nick Shirley speaks outside of Quality Learning Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Tuesday. - CNN

The caucus told CNN the funding figures were obtained from the state Department of Human Services, which did not respond to CNN's request for confirmation Wednesday.

State GOP leadership said they raised concerns about day care centers, including Quality Learning Center, months ago.

"The (House)fraud committee… featured a number of these apparently vacant sites in a hearing that took place all the way back in February, which also included the infamous Quality Learning Center featured in the viral video," state House Speaker Lisa DemuthsaidMonday.

CCAP does not take applications directly from day care centers. Instead, qualified working parents and other eligible caregivers who make less than the program's income limitapplydirectly to the state for assistance, which is paid to the day care center.

A budgetforecastproduced in November by the agency that runs CCAP says it's projected to cost the state $56 million in the 2025 fiscal year. Another $101 million in funding for the program was expected to come from the federal government.

Quality Learning Center's most recent inspection – which state officials say are done unannounced – was on June 23, the facility'slicensing recordshows.

"There have been ongoing investigations involving several of those centers. None of those investigations uncovered findings of fraud," state Department of Children, Youth, and Families Commissioner Tikki Brown said Monday of centers covered in Shirley's video, adding that new site visits would be conducted this week. The department did not respond to multiple requests from CNN for whether those additional visits have been completed and what the results were.

"There's no fraud going on whatsoever," said Ibrahim Ali, who identified himself as a manager and son of the owners of Quality Learning Center, toCNN affiliate KAREon Monday. He said Shirley's video was taken before the business had opened for the day.

"If you look around, there's cars now because our employees are here, our children are here," he said on Monday.

Shirley's video came 11 months after a similar visit to Quality Learning Center from a reporter forlocal TV station KSTP, who also was told by a worker that the building was not yet open because it provides after-school care, with posted operating hours of 2 to 10 p.m.

State DHSrecordsshow Quality Learning Center was cited for 121 violations from May 2022 to June 2025, including 10 in the most recent inspection, listed as a licensing review. Citations included having an unqualified substitute and failing to have proper documentation for children's medicine. None of the violations suggest that the building was empty.

The state records also show correction documents were submitted and approved in response to the violations.

But even without allegations of fraud, Quality Learning Center's license has previously been in jeopardy.

In May 2022, site inspectors found 27 violations, 10 of them repeats of previous violations.

"Due to the serious and chronic nature of these violations, and the conditions in the program, which impact the health and safety of children in your care, your license to provide childcare services is placed on a conditional status for two years," said a publicly filednoticein June 2022.

Although Shirley's video implied the day care was empty, several of the violations noted in that report involved overcrowding, with too many children in some rooms and too few adults supervising them.

Staff lacked training, the 2022 notice said, and one person misidentified themselves to investigators.

The citation focused on a lack of documentation for many children. "There were several children present who did not have files," the letter says, adding that "staff were unable to provide the first and last names for most of the children present."

Although it remained on conditional status for two years, Quality Learning Center was never suspended, according to state records. It has twice been fined $200 for allowing the background check on an employee to expire.

On Tuesday afternoon, the sidewalk in front of the facility had become a hive of activity – including the return of Nick Shirley – as media and Shirley supporters watched adults escorting children in and out. A CNN crew was kept back from the property, told by an unidentified person that being in the parking lot would be considered trespassing.

Determining exactly how many children are served by Quality Learning Center – now, or in the past – is difficult from state records. The facility is licensed to provide care for a maximum of 99 children, but Ali, the center's manager, told KARE it serves anywhere from 50 to 80 children on an average day.

The state Department of Human Services has not responded to CNN's requests for details about enrollment figures.

CNN has been unable to reach the business or its registered owner, Siman Aden, using listed phone numbers, and it is not clear if they have an attorney.

Questions about the current status of the business were complicated by conflicting statements on Monday.

"Quality Learning Center closed just over a week ago," Brown said in anews conference, an assertion repeated in a statement to CNN from Walz's office.

But observers found kids arriving at Quality Learning Center that same afternoon, resulting in a raft of onlineconspiracytheories.Quality Learning Center "decided to remain open," a department spokesperson told theMinnesota Star Tribune.

Speaking to CNN outside the building Tuesday, Nick Shirley dismissed the idea that seeing children entering the building disproved his video.

"They're showing face right now," hesaid.

CNN reached out to Brown's agency for more information about why it initially thought the center had closed. The state licensing database shows Quality Learning Center's license was renewed through the end of 2026.

And as for that missing letter "n"? Ali told KARE it was a mistake by the graphic designer. By Tuesday, work on a fix was underway.

CNN's Whitney Wild and Chris Boyette contributed to this report.

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January 01, 2026

What we know about a Minneapolis day care center that was highlighted in video about alleged fraud

It may now be the most famous – or infamous – sign in the country. Posted above a door on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, the Quality Learn...

Coast Guard searches for 77-year-old woman who went overboard from cruise ship

The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a 77-year-old woman who went overboard from a Holland America Line cruise ship.

The woman was a passenger on the Nieuw Statendam ship, which was roughly 40 miles northeast of Sabana, Cuba, when she went overboard on Thursday, the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard has deployed Cutter William Trump and an MH-60 helicopter to help with the search.

The ship departed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Saturday and was on a seven-day journey through the eastern Caribbean, according to Holland America Line.

"The captain and crew initiated search and rescue procedures and are searching the area working closely with the U.S. Coast Guard," the cruise line said in a statement. "Our family assistance team is supporting the guest's family, and our thoughts are with the guest's loved ones during this difficult time."

The ship was scheduled to dock at Key West, Florida, on Friday, but that stop was canceled because of the ongoing search, the cruise line said.

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January 01, 2026

Coast Guard searches for 77-year-old woman who went overboard from cruise ship

The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a 77-year-old woman who went overboard from a Holland America Line cruise ship. ...

Cocaine, abuse, 'full meltdown' – Chevy Chase doc revelations

Far from a "Christmas Vacation," CNN'sChevy Chasedocumentary doesn't shy away from the actor's marred legacy.

"Chevy's a very smart guy," says Marina Zenovich, director of "I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not" (premiering New Year's Day, 8 ET/PT). "This wasn't going to be a hagiography. So of course I'm going to dig into those things."

Featuring interviews with Chase's family – his wife of 43 years, Jayni, their three daughters, and Chase's brothers – as well as his costars, includingDan Aykroyd, Beverly D'Angelo,Goldie HawnandMartin Short− the film revisits Chase's early days of living in a cockroach-filled apartment on Lexington Avenue in New York City and bowing out as the drummer of the band that would become Steely Dan.

In the documentary, the actor also revealshow hurt he waswhen he wasn't included in a sketch forFebruary's 50th anniversary of "Saturday Night Live" (he was a member of the show's inaugural cast) and the impact ofheart failure, which has affected his memory. The film also addresses his shadow side, which struggled with a reliance on cocaine and alcohol and had a "full meltdown" on set.

Chevy Chase's abusive stepfather, 'out of control' mom

Chase's parents divorced when he was around 4. His mother, Cathalene, remarried to a man named John Cederquist. He "had a flash anger," Chase's half-brother, also named John Cederquist, says, "and he could lash out with a single blow and no talk before or after. He did not take to anything that he perceived as insolence. Chevy was insolent."

Chase, now 82, remembers being slapped at breakfast by his stepfather; he says his mother was also abusive. In the documentary, Chase says he was raised by "an out-of-control woman, who I look back on, and I say I feel sorry for her. She had her own issues. Bad ones."

Wife Jayni says in the film: "The first time we stayed together, the first time I went to wake him up, he shuddered. And he explained, 'Well, my mother would wake me up slapping me,' from the time he was a little guy."

"Our mother was a bag of cats," Chase's brother John says, "certainly on the schizoid spectrum."

Chevy Chase is looking back on a lifetime of laughs in a new documentary about his distinguished comedy career.

The comedian, 82, was part of the original cast of "Saturday Night Live" in 1975 and after leaving the show starred in a string of hit comedies throughout the 1980s, including "Caddyshack" and "National Lampoon's Vacation."

With the documentary "I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not" set to premiere on CNN, scroll through for a look back at Chase's career, starting with Chase with his "Saturday Night Live" costars in 1975.