JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville mother is pleading for answers after her 13-year-old son, Alekzander “Zander” Burnett, disappeared two weeks ago.
Wendy Burnett said her son is a good student who loves his family and has no history of running away. She last saw Zander at their home on Nov. 4, hours after he got home from wrestling practice.
“He has an entire family that wants him home,” Burnett said. “If there’s something wrong, if there’s something we can help him with, we’re here.”
Burnett said Zander had recently been disciplined for sneaking out of a relative’s house, and his phone had been taken away.
She discovered him missing in the early morning hours of Nov. 5. She thought maybe he had gone for a walk, but when he didn’t return home hours later, she reported it to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
“I notified JSO, and they were very nonchalant about it,” Burnett said. “This is an A-B student who loves sports and his family. This isn’t his nature.”
On Monday there was a be-on-the-lookout (BOLO) alert for an 11-year-old the same day they went missing, but Zander never got a BOLO alert when he went missing two weeks ago.
News4JAX asked Crime and Safety Analyst Tom Hackney what would cause one child to receive a BOLO over another.
“It’s usually what’s considered that tender age, which is around 12 and younger,” Hackney said. “That gets a little bit more attention. As you start hitting those teenage years, that’s kind of the bright line there in some cases.”
Burnett suspects Zander’s girlfriend and another friend may know where he is but haven’t come forward. She is also considering other scenarios, fearing he may have been harmed.
“I’m like, this is a kid that’s always with his family, and now for whatever, this young lady or these two girls that I don’t even know, could have took him in the woods somewhere, or, you know, outed him, ‘We can’t have him. Mama can’t have him’ is this way I feel,” Burnett said.
On Zander’s missing poster, it reads, “It is a crime to knowingly provide false information concerning a missing child.” Hackney said those warnings are common.
“When you see that on a poster, it makes you think there’s more to the story,” Hackney said. “But any missing child deserves the attention of their parents, law enforcement, and the public to help bring them home.”
Burnett had a message for her son: “I love you. Come home.”
Anyone with information about Zander’s whereabouts is urged to call the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office at 904-630-0500.