Titus' body was found inside a van about 11 a.m. Wednesday covered with a blanket after someone saw him there and flagged down one of the searchers, according to the Missouri Highway Patrol. The boy and his mother were visiting a former boyfriend's residence east of Ironton.

The unlocked van was off Highway 72, near the entrance to Dayspring Bible Camp, police say. It was about a mile by road from the home in which Titus was last seen alive, although closer on a line through nearby woods. Drew Cole said the owners of the van did not know Titus' family.

Authorities had searched overnight for Titus after his family told police they feared he had gotten outside and wandered away from the home near Lake Killarney, east of Ironton.

They told police they last saw the boy about midnight Tuesday, and that he had been wearing only a diaper.

The boy's mother was visiting the ex-boyfriend at the home of the ex-boyfriend's father on Killarney Drive. Iron County Sheriff Roger Medley said the mother and ex-boyfriend told police they ran an errand about midnight and left the child with a grandparent. They returned about 1:30 a.m. to discover the door to the house open and the child missing, the sheriff said.

Drew Cole said the ex-boyfriend's father was in the house when the boy was last seen.