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 A 3-year-old boy lost outside for hours in frigid temperatures wearing only a diaper and winter boots has died, Toronto police said. 
 
 The boy — named Elijah Marsh — was found around 10 a.m. at 89 Baycrest Ave., about 300 metres from his home at 145 Neptune Dr. Volunteers searching the area came across the boy in the rear yard of a house. 
 
 Elijah was tucked away in a corner of the backyard, wearing a T-shirt, pull-up diaper and winter boots. 
 
 Toronto police said at 2:05 p.m. that the little boy had died. 
 
 “There’s nothing worse in this business and for all of us than to see the tragic death of a child,” police Chief Bill Blair told reporters following a police board meeting at 40 College St. 
 
 “I think every Torontonian will feel the loss. You know, you see the picture of that beautiful little boy and a very nice smile and the video of the child going out into the cold at 4 o’clock in the morning, it really is a tragic set of circumstances. And I think it will remind all of us to go home and hug our kids a little bit more and I think we all will grieve for that child and for their family and for their community for the loss,” he said. 
 
 “We will do everything we can to support that family” 
 
 Elijah’s uncle, Paul Gray, had told the Star earlier doctors are continuing to work on his nephew at North York General Hospital. 
 
 The 3-year-old’s parents were inside the emergency room through the ordeal, he said. 
 
 Gray said he found out his nephew was missing when he woke up Thursday morning. 
 
 He and his wife left the hospital arm in arm, both crying, just after midday Thursday. 
 
 Gray said it was a horrible feeling hearing Elijah had been found by police with no vital signs in the snow. 
 
 “It’s just so hard. It’s hard to explain,” he said. 
 
 Angel Young, a resident of the Neptune Dr. apartment complex where Elijah lived, said her children often played with him at the park. 
 
 “He was a happy kid” who loved to run and play on the slides, she said. 
 
 Elijah lived with his grandmother and aunts in the apartment building, Young said. 
 
 “I’ve seen his aunt taking him to daycare every morning. He was always bundled up and in a stroller, and she was always on time,” Young said. “He always looked very good cared for.” 
 
 Young said Elijah’s grandmother is at hospital with him. 
 
 Neighbour Tilli Laven saw the boy carried out to an ambulance outside the home where he was found. 
 
 “I saw them bringing out the child from the backyard . . . he was covered in a blanket,” Laven said. 
 
 Officers on horseback, on foot and in a helicopter searched for Elijah, who disappeared during a night of bitterly cold temperatures. 
 
 The search also happened online. Thousands tweeted pictures of the boy with the hashtag #FindElijah, in hopes of spreading word about his disappearance. 
 
 “My heart aches for his parents,” read one tweet. 
 
 “This is heartbreaking, please RT #FindElijah it’s so cold outside,” read another. 
 
 Police received the call reporting a missing child around 7:30 a.m. Thursday. 
 
 “The police response was aggressive and massive from the early going because, of course, a missing 3-year-old child in this sort of environment is something we treat very, very seriously,” said Insp. Frank Barredo. 
 
 Elijah was last seen on building security cameras at 4:20 a.m. Thursday walking on his own, police said. 
 
 The community rallied to help search for Elijah, coming from “far and wide,” Barredo said. 
 
 Police asked area residents to look in their backyards, driveways and under their cars. Neighbours were asked to check their building hallways and stairwells. 
 
 Because of the temperature, police believed Elijah may have crawled into a small area to protect himself from the cold. 
 
 Environment Canada had issued an extreme cold weather alert for the city of Toronto. It was -17C last night, with temperatures dropping to -20C early Thursday morning. Wind chill made it feel like -33C. 
 
 Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-3100 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-8477. ||||| Elijah Marsh was three-years-old and he was never left alone. Neighbours say a family member always seemed to be around him. Holding his hand. Playing with him. Calling after him and scooping him up in their arms and keeping a watchful eye over a little guy with a big, precious grin, because Elijah was three. 
 
 He was three, and fiercely loved by his family, and he was three and every parent of every three-year-old understands that they get into everything. Exploring. Climbing furniture. Opening cupboards and doors, and making their parents sick with worry at times. 
 
 All he would want was his Mom and Dad. I always see him with his family. I have never seen that boy alone 
 
 At 4 a.m., on a bitterly cold Thursday in February, little Elijah Marsh, with that precious smile of his, opened the door of his grandparents’ apartment on Neptune Drive in the city’s north end and then opened two more, leading out of the low-rise building, pushing his way into the crisp clear night dressed in pull-ups, a t-shirt and winter boots. 
 
 Elijah was found six hours later after a frantic search by scores of police and community members. He was rushed to hospital. He was pronounced dead around 2 p.m. 
 
 “I have a three-year-old,” says Melissa Donaldson, a neighbour of Elijah’s grandparents and a local community leader who was involved in the search for the missing boy. 
 
 “What happened here is unbelievably sad. I just think about that child being outside. Alone. And it being dark, and it is so cold and he was three — and he comes out — and he can’t get back in the building, because the door here locks behind you. 
 
 “All he would want was his Mom and Dad. I always see him with his family. I have never seen that boy alone.” 
 
 Elijah went to bed around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. When his family awoke the next morning at 7:30, they realized he was gone. Police were called and over 100 units, including helicopters and mounted police, were dispatched to aid in the search. Dozens of community members pitched in. Security footage from the building on Neptune Drive showed Elijah looking up at the exterior door, and exiting. What it didn’t show was where he had gone. 
 
 The temperature at 4 a.m. was -20 Celsius. 
 
 It takes me five minutes walking at a brisk pace to reach the spot on Baycrest Avenue where Elijah was discovered by two volunteer searchers. He was found, face down, lying between two bungalows, hidden from passersby by an air conditioning unit and a set of stairs leading to a side door. The snow around a basement window has been cleared. There are footprints all around and, on the porch, three shovels, including two sized for children. 
 
 The street itself and others nearby are home to many Orthodox Jewish families, including a mother of eight, in a tidy home just a few doors down from where Elijah was found, who spoke of his parents. How they were living through every parents “worst nightmare” in an area where, at night, the streets fall silent, and there is no one about. 
 
 Gordon Giesbrecht is a professor at the University of Manitoba and among the world’s foremost hypothermia experts. He also has a three-year-old grandchild and understands just how kids, even at that age, are able to open locked doors. But it is the doors that lock behind them that pose the gravest danger in cold weather, he says. 
 
 “You’ve got this irreversibility problem because the child was never going to get that door back open,” he says. “And then you have the time — it is 4 a.m. — not recess during school.” 
 
 Given the temperature, Elijah’s body mass and state of dress, he would have been in grave condition by the time his family realized he was gone. Then another three hours passed before he was found with no vital signs. 
 
 Neighbour Millie Dyer said Elijah, whom she said was sweet and full of energy, was over at his grandmother’s place all the time and has two aunts who also live in the same apartment complex. 
 
 “When his mom has to work, Elijah is here. And he goes to daycare just down the street,” Ms. Dyer said. “He’s a very smart little boy.” 
 
 On Thursday afternoon, Elijah’s grandmother sobbed and hugged friends as she left her apartment. 
 
 “No, no, no,” was all she could say through tears. 
 
 Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair told reporters that when he got the call Thursday morning about a missing child in the bitter cold it was “all hands on deck.” Hours later, after the worst had come to pass, he spoke of a city’s grief. 
 
 “I think every Torontonian will feel the loss,” he said. “You see the picture of that beautiful little boy. And the smile. And the video of the child going out into the cold at 4 o’clock in the morning, it really is a tragic set of circumstances. 
 
 “And it will remind all of us to go home and hug our kids a little bit more. I think we all will grieve for that child and for their family and for their community for its loss.” 
 
 There is a mural just beyond the doors of 145 Neptune Drive, a community project, painted by the “youth of Neptune.” It features bright, joyful colours — all blues and greens and yellows — and there is a message written inside: “Don’t worry, be happy.” 
 
 Elijah Marsh had a precious smile. His family loved him. He was three-years-old. He was never left alone. 
 
 National Post, with files from Natalie Alcoba and The Canadian Press 
 
 • Email: joconnor@nationalpost.com | Twitter: oconnorwrites ||||| In this frame grab from security camera video provided by the Toronto Police Service via The Canadian Press, 3-year-old Elijah stands in an apartment building lobby, early Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015, in... (Associated Press) 
 
 Police were notified of the boy's disappearance at 7:30 a.m. by family members who said they woke to find him gone and the front door open. They said they'd last seen him in his bed Wednesday night. 
 
 Security camera video showed the boy, Elijah Marsh, leaving the building at about 4 a.m. After a massive search, he was found just after 10 a.m. in a nearby yard. He did not show any vital signs, and was rushed to the hospital. Police later announced his death on Twitter. 
 
 "You see the picture of that beautiful little boy with a nice smile and the video of the child going out into the cold," Toronto police chief Bill Blair said. "It really is a tragic set of circumstances." 
 
 Temperatures dipped to as low as minus-20 Celsius (minus-4 Fahrenheit) during the six hours Elijah was outdoors.
– Toronto is in mourning after the horrifying death of a 3-year-old boy who wandered outside at night wearing only a T-shirt, pullup diaper, and winter boots. Little Elijah Marsh is believed to have left his grandparents' apartment at around 4am yesterday morning, opening two more doors—the second of which would have locked behind him—to make his way out of the building, reports the National Post. When his family discovered he was missing at around 7:30am, police launched what they say was an "aggressive and massive" search involving more than 100 officers, as well as volunteers from across the city, the Toronto Star reports. Elijah was found with no vital signs in a corner of a backyard at around 10am and was pronounced dead in a hospital hours later. Security camera video showed the boy leaving the building on a night where temperatures were as low as minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit, the AP reports. "What happened here is unbelievably sad. I just think about that child being outside. Alone. And it being dark, and it is so cold and he was 3—and he comes out—and he can't get back in the building, because the door here locks behind you," a neighbor who joined the search tells the Post. "All he would want was his mom and dad. I always see him with his family. I have never seen that boy alone." Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair says the whole city shares the family's sorrow. "It will remind all of us to go home and hug our kids a little bit more," he says. "I think we all will grieve for that child and for their family and for their community for its loss." (A similar story from December had a much happier ending.)