Waxahachie city employee first spotted vehicle at center of Amber Alert
WAXAHACHIE, Texas - A Waxahachie city employee found the minivan where a woman and her son, who were at the center of an Amber Alert, were found dead on Friday.
Waxahachie police say the city employee was leaving for the day when he recognized the car from an Amber Alert that had been released hours earlier.
The Amber Alert said 6-year-old OIlie Wiedemann was in imminent danger and was with his mother, Candace Harbin.
Details are unfolding slowly surrounding their deaths. Police confirm that Harbin, the boys' noncustodial parent, picked up Ollie from his Waxahachie private school on Thursday afternoon. It has been reported as the last time he was seen alive.
John Weidemann, Ollie’s father, reported him missing Friday morning. The Amber Alert was issued shortly afterward.
Around 6 p.m. that same afternoon, Joseph Iglesias, a city worker, was leaving work and spotted a 2012 Nissan Quest that matched the description of the Amber Alert vehicle in a downtown Waxahachie parking garage.
"The license place. The dealer identifier tag. It all came back matching" Iglesias recalled.
After calling 911, police quickly arrived at the location. Iglesias says officers broke in a window and immediately reacted as if something was coming from inside it.
"Whenever we see them break the window, they all just step back real far and start like wafting the air around their face," Iglesias recalled. "It's kind of like the reaction if you've ever seen like a stink bomb go off."
There was also a hazmat response, though investigators have yet to detail what prompted the call-out. Police have revealed very little about the case, but they did say they are not looking for any suspects.
Court records show Harbin and the boy’s father, John Wiedmann, finalized a divorce in 2017.
The boy’s father had custody of Ollie and had some type of visitation arrangement with his ex-wife. He released a statement on Monday saying:
"Ollie was an amazing young boy who cared about people. He always wanted to make others happy and if ever a classmate was having a tough day, he would reach out to help them. He loved swimming, Legos and superheroes but most of all he loved going to school."
John’s divorce attorney tells FOX 4 that Harbin did have unsupervised visitation at the time she picked him up from school. The attorney also says John was very concerned about his ex-wife’s mental health, prompting a court-ordered psychological evaluation. The couple was due back in court in October.
Pastor Bruce Zimmerman was with John shortly after he got news of his son’s death. He says John is heartbroken but spent Monday at Ollie’s school being showered by love and cards from Ollie’s classmates.
“This is a great town. Waxahachie is a great town,” Zimmerman said. “And the whole town is praying for John and for family members who are really hurting right now.”
Funeral services for Ollie will be on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Waxahachie Bible Church.
There is no word yet on when the autopsy results will be released that will determine a cause of death.