Authorities sifting through a Georgia landfill for the remains of missing Georgia toddler Quinton Simon have paused their search for the weekend.
The pause comes after four days of digging through “tons” of trash at a massive landfill in Chatham County.
“To help maintain the health of the search team, they will be standing down for two days after their landfill shift ends late this afternoon,” the Chatham County Police Department announced in an update on Friday, citing dangerous exposure to numerous “health and safety hazards.”
“This is a grueling part of our investigation that can only be performed by a team of specially-trained law enforcement searchers,” the department added.
While the round-the-clock search for Quinton’s remains has paused, police said they will spend Saturday and Sunday “conducting numerous interviews, and will continue to analyze evidence they have already gathered in this case.”
The 20-month old disappeared from his home in Savannah just after 6 a.m. Oct. 5 and hasn’t been seen since.
The FBI said Tuesday it believes Quinton was placed in a dumpster that would have been emptied at the county’s waste management facility.
Quinton’s troubled mother, 24-year-old Leilani Simon — who admitted to drug use while pregnant — remains the top suspect in her son’s disappearance, according to Chatham County police.
On Tuesday, Simon was spotted boozing with her mom, Billie Jo Howell, on a restaurant deck shooting top-shelf tequila.
Police plan to resume combing through the landfill on Monday.
