‘The Ohio River is now a huge, unmarked grave;’ Where the search stands for 2 area boys

HAMILTON — Months after two southern Ohio boys were thrown into the Ohio River, weeks apart from each other, search crews have still not recovered either one of their bodies.

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The remains of James Hutchinson and Nylo Lattimore remain missing in the months that have followed their deaths. Hutchinson, 6, was killed in Preble County in late February and later thrown into the Ohio River from the Carroll Cropper Bridge, weighed down by a concrete block, according to investigative and court records.

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Just weeks before, 3-year-old Lattimore was thrown alive into the Ohio River in Cincinnati in December 2020 by his mother’s boyfriend. The man, identified as Desean Brown, 21, is accused of killing Nylo’s mother, 21-year-old Nyteisha just hours before Brown threw Nylo into the river, investigators previously said.

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On Tuesday, the legal proceedings in Hutchinson’s case reached a conclusion, as his mother’s boyfriend James Hamilton, was sentenced for his role in covering up the boy’s death. Hamilton, 42, was given a maximum sentence, between 15 and 19 years in prison and will have to register as a child victim offender, and register on the state’s violent offender registry.

“You helped steal the innocence of children. You abused three children so horribly for so long with no regards to their lives. You helped cover up a murder of an innocent, bright-eyed, beautiful, six-year-old boy,” Kathryn Lundy, a Hutchinson family friend said during Hamilton’s sentencing.

>>RELATED: Timeline: How the investigation into James Hutchinson’s death unfolded

“The Ohio River is now a huge, unmarked grave that no one can go visit. We cannot put flowers at it. No one can leave James’ favorite toys at it. It is a grave that no one to this day has been able to find,” Lundy said.

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Last month, Hutchinson’s mother Brittany Gosney was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 21 years for her role in the boy’s murder.

The Preble County Sheriff’s Office is the agency that continues to lead the search efforts for both missing boys. Sheriff Mike Simpson said the office remains committed to locating both boys.

>Court records: Mother, boyfriend ‘hog-tied’ James Hutchinson, siblings before boy’s death

“Obviously when we have opportunities for our partners down in Hamilton County to get back on the water, we will continue that path. And I don’t know how long that will go on, but I assume it’s going to go on for a while,” Simpson said.

“When we have the opportunity to get on the water with them and let them do their thing we will certainly do that. We have no plans to discontinue the search for either one of those young boys.”

Simpson added that despite over seven months passing since the boys were thrown into the river, there still remains hope that their remains will be recovered.

“Our goal is to find James and Nylo and bring them back home is our hope. So we’ll stay focused on that.”

Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser said its hard for him to even travel over the river into Kentucky or Indiana without thinking about Hutchinson.

“Well I thought it was very well spoken for the victim’s spokesperson to come forward and say that now is the graveyard for James. And I know that every time I will ever pass over the Ohio River, I’m burdened with the thought that that’s where James is until he is found,” Gmoser said after Hamilton was sentenced Tuesday.

“I think there are desires from all of us to bring closure to that aspect of this with the hope that possibly there could be something that could be found that would give some respect to the body of little James. That’s the best we’re going to be able to do.”

Lundy spoke with News Center 7′s John Bedell after the sentencing, adding its difficult even for some family members to cross the river, knowing Hutchinson’s remains have still not been recovered.

“The Ohio River, every time I cross it to go to work is horrible. Every time the family has to cross it is horrible. Some of the family can’t even cross it, to be 100-percent honest,” Lundy said.

In the first weeks and months of the search for the boys, weather conditions were unfavorable for searching in the river especially for diving teams.

“As you know from the atmospheric conditions over the past year, that river has been raging,” Gmoser said in a previous news conference. “The visibility, as a scuba diver myself, I can tell you, if you dive in the Ohio River when you go to the bottom you’re likely to hit a rock on your facemask. The visibility is almost nothing. When you have a current that is sweeping along as fast as it is, its very difficult to work in those conditions.”

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