A 3-year-old boy who went missing early Tuesday morning in South Jersey has been found dead in a wooded area near the Cooper River Lake.

6 ABC reports family, friends and police were searching the area in Haddon when the child, who has not been publicly identified by police, was found in a wooded area on South River Drive along the Cooper River Lake by a K-9 unit.

Andy McNeil with the Camden County prosecutor's office told the Associated Press the boy was reported missing from his Haddon Township home at about 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Several blocks of the neighborhood were cordoned off Tuesday morning, the AP reported.

Haddon Township resident Seneid Jen O'Rourke Kennedy said she became aware the child was missing through posts made at around 6 a.m. in a community group on Facebook.

She joined the search — but in her case, starting several blocks away from the child's home, feeling it would be saturated with other volunteers and officials.

Kennedy said she alone saw dozens of people looking — many from neighboring communities including Cherry Hill. She alone covered about four miles in an hour and a half but didn't see any sign of the boy, she said.

If there was an organized search, she said, she wasn't personally aware of it. But she did encounter the boy's grandfather while looking, and was told the boy had gone missing somewhere between midnight at 6 a.m., she said.

In a Facebook post earlier today, Kennedy said despite the news of the boy's death, she wanted "to say how proud I am of our community!!!! So many people came out to search for the little boy. Everybody just individually looking through the neighborhood. I'm proud to live in this amazing town!!!"

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