HAMPTON, Va. (AP) — A man who reported his 4-year-old son missing earlier this week has been arrested on unrelated child neglect charges, but Hampton’s police chief said that doesn’t mean the investigation is over.
Codi Bigsby has not been found, but his father, Cory Bigsby, 43, was arrested Thursday night and charged with seven counts of felony child neglect, Hampton police said. The charges are not directly related to his son’s disappearance. Court documents state that Cory Bigsby admitted leaving his four children, who are between the ages of 2 and 5, home alone for hours at a time on several occasions, news outlets reported.
Police have said Cory Bigsby reported Codi missing around 9 a.m. Monday, saying that he had last seen the boy sleeping in bed hours earlier, but officials have been openly skeptical of that account. Investigators with Hampton police and the FBI are working to determine where and when Codi was last seen, asking anyone who has seen the boy, his father or siblings since the holidays to come forward.
“Our investigation is not over. It will not end with that arrest,” Hampton Police Chief Mark Talbot said Friday at a news conference. “In fact in some ways our investigation is going to start and become more intense now.”
The FBI has given investigators forensic data to review and that will take time, Talbot said.
Before his arrest, Cory Bigsby had been at police headquarters since Monday, voluntarily, according to police.
Attorney Jeffrey R. Ambrose, who had been retained by Cory Bigsby’s relatives, said by telephone that he went to division headquarters Thursday and was told he couldn’t enter because Bigsby hadn’t requested an attorney. When he met with Bigsby for the first time Friday afternoon, Ambrose said Bigsby told him he had requested an attorney, but that request wasn’t honored.
When asked about Bigsby having access to an attorney at a news conference, Talbot said Bigsby had been made aware of his rights.
