A search for a missing east Alabama child has ended in tragedy after a 4-year-old boy was found deceased in Cleburne County.

Cleburne County Coroner Adam Downs told AL.com that the child, identified as DJ Jarrell, was found deceased in a backyard swimming pool after a roughly two-hour search Saturday night.

Downs said the child “slipped away” out of his house around 6 p.m. and was found later in the pool.

Downs said DJ’s family asked to be vigilant about swimming pool safety.

“They urge anyone that has a young child that has a swimming pool to please make sure that they keep the gates locked and secured to where a child cannot get into that pool,” Downs said.

The Ranburne Police Department posted a missing child alert at 8:41 p.m. Saturday, saying that a 4-year-old boy had gone missing and asking anyone with information on the child to call 911 immediately.

The child was last seen near the area of Cleburne County Road 49 and County Road 111 in Ranburne at approximately 5:55 p.m.

The police department posted at 9:33 p.m. that the child had been found deceased.

Downs said the search involved numerous volunteers, law enforcement and emergency response personnel from Cleburne County and the surrounding areas.

He said that the water in the pool was very cloudy, which is why the child was not immediately found in the pool.

“It’s just one of those circumstances that the water was so cloudy in the pool that you could not see the bottom,” he said.

Downs said the official cause of death will not be released until after an autopsy by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.