Texas toddler mysteriously disappears from house full of people

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[video]http://cnn.com/video/?/video/crime/2011/02/07/ng.tx.missing.toddler.hln[/video]

-- The parents of a Texas toddler are struggling for answers days after their young son mysteriously disappeared from a house full of people.

Sabrina Benitez, the 18-month-old's mother, said she believes the boy was abducted -- insisting it would have been all but impossible for her boy to go outside. Even if he did, Benitez said, the toddler would have been smart enough to try to get back in or would have been spotted by now.

But New Braunfels Police Lt. Michael Penshorn said as of Monday, it's most likely that young Joshua Davis Jr. left the home without anyone noticing or taking him.

"The first scenario that we are looking at is that somehow the child was able to exit the house ... and basically disappear into the night," he told HLN's Nancy Grace on Monday.

Benitez, also speaking on HLN, said she was watching "Toy Story" with Joshua shortly before 8 p.m. Friday when he left the room, heading toward where six other adults and another child were. About 10 minutes later, when the boy hadn't come back to watch the video or pick up a toy, Benitez asked the others about his whereabouts.

But Joshua was nowhere to be found, neither inside nor outside the house. Within minutes, family members called police -- who investigated the scene and sent an alert to 2,500 nearby residents.

One individual came in and out of the house between when Benitez last saw the toddler and reported him missing, but that person is not considered a suspect. Penshorn said police don't think anyone at the house took the child. No Amber Alert has been issued for Joshua because such an alert typically requires solid evidence that an abduction took place.

"If for some reason somebody came and took that child, not only would (the people inside) have seen the child leave the residence, but they would have seen somebody come inside and take him," Penshorn said.

Still, Benitez said her toddler couldn't have gotten outside himself, noting he wasn't tall enough to turn a doorknob.

"The only way that the baby would have gotten out the door is (if) the front door (was) open," she said. "But we had the doors closed."

Ice covered the steps outside, leading Benitez to believe that there would be signs of Josh if he did get out.

Still, as of Monday, police searches involving people, helicopters and dogs hadn't led to any signs of the boy.

"They had scent dogs out here, and (they) said there was no scent of him leaving the yard," the toddler's father, Josh Davis Sr., told CNN affiliate KENS. "So I don't see how he could have wandered off, or else they would have picked something up."
 
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