Community in mourning after loss of Noah Chamberlin

PINSON, Tenn. — A local community mourns the loss of a toddler found dead in the woods Thursday. Searchers spent seven days looking for 2-year-old Noah Chamberlin.

Sheriff’s deputies are still staged at the former command post in Pinson one day after search crews found Noah’s body. “It was just a bad accident, and that could happen to any of us,” Josh Cantrell, a local pastor, said.

Cantrell lives not far from the search site on Short Road. “It was heartbreaking, but also we were glad that the family could have some kind of closure,” he said.

Green ribbons line the streets of Pinson as a sign of support for Noah, his family and the hundreds of volunteers who looked for him.

“It really shows how people come together when something happens,” Justin Hays, of Pinson, said.

Law enforcement vehicles that flooded the search area are gone, but residents said they are still grieving. “I mean it hurts the whole community, but at least his family got some answers,” Hays said.

Cantrell said they plan to be protective of the family. “We’ll cover them with our prayers, but we also will cover them by refusing to gossip or talk in ways that are wrong,” he said.

No word on funeral arrangements for Noah just yet, but the Madison County Sheriff’s Office said two large churches in Jackson offered to host the service at their facilities.