Clayton neighbors rally in successful search for missing boy

CLAYTON, CA—A 9-year-old Clayton boy went missing for three hours Thursday night, scaring the bejesus out of his parents and triggering a massive search that involved scores of neighbors, a Concord K-9 unit and a helicopter.

About 6 p.m. Jan. 28, Anthony Rossi, bored and fed up with sheltering in place, snuck out through the garage of his Seminary Ridge home in his pajamas and headed over the hill to find his friend in Dana Hills. Of course, he didn’t tell anyone where he was going.

When his dad, Stephen Rossi, discovered him missing, he called the police and posted an appeal for help on social media. Word spread faster than a Diablo wildfire, and within minutes neighbors and volunteers poured out of their homes – flashlights and lanterns in hand to look for Anthony.

Community steps up

“It was unreal,” Clayton PD Sgt. Rich Enea said. “I’ve never seen that kind of response to anything in Clayton, ever.

“People were in cars and on foot, down in the creek calling to Anthony and to each other,” Enea said. “The community really stepped up.”

Planning commissioner Terri Denslow joined the search about 7 p.m. and estimates 200-300 people were looking for Anthony. “There were flashlights and cars everywhere,” she said. “It gives me renewed faith in our community.”

A volunteer found Anthony on Mountaire Parkway and returned him to his parents by 9 p.m., a little chagrined and stunned that so many people who didn’t even know him were out looking.

Happy ending

The story has a happy ending in more ways than one.

In a town that has seen some bitter division over the last year, a missing child proved way bigger than politics to a community still raw from the last election.

“There’s been some tension around race and other issues this past year,” Rossi noted. He and his partner Chris Covin are a biracial couple  raising two Black sons, 9 and 16.

“Whatever feelings I had about it now are all gone, just wiped away,” said a grateful Rossi. “I love you all.”