Missing Baby: Bloodhounds, Helicopters Search Through Night For Baby Semaj

JOLIET, IL — An intensive search for a missing baby girl lasted through Tuesday night well into Wednesday morning with no sign of the child.

Bloodhounds, other search dogs and helicopters were all employed in hopes of locating 1-year-old Semaj M.L. Crosby.

Semaj was playing with about a dozen other children in a yard near the corner of Luana Road and Richards Street when she disappeared Tuesday evening, police said. The Will County Sheriff’s Department was contacted about 5:45 p.m. and launched its search effort, said Deputy Chief Rick Ackerson.

Baby Semaj was shoeless when she was last seen and was wearing dark blue jeans and a gray long sleeve shirt decorated with a cat face. Semaj’s hair was in white-beaded ponytails.

Fresh bloodhounds were to be deployed Wednesday along with additional personnel from the Will County Emergency Management Agency. The sheriff’s department was also going to call in divers to search ponds and other bodies of water in the Preston Heights area.

The department asked anyone with information regarding Semaj’s whereabouts to call deputies at 815-727-8575.

Semaj M.L. Crosby | image via Will County Sheriff's Office Facebook page