Funeral service for Xavior Harrelson set for Saturday

Over five months since Xavior Harrelson disappeared from a Montezuma mobile home park on the cusp of his 11th birthday, he will be laid to rest with a funeral and burial Saturday.

The boy was reported missing May 27, sparking massive searches, scores of flyers around town and pleas for help in finding him. Then on Sept. 30, a farmer checking on a soybean field a few miles northwest of town discovered remains and clothing that investigators believed were the boy’s.

On Oct. 15, Poweshiek County Sheriff Thomas Kriegel announced that the State Medical Examiner’s Office had confirmed the remains were of Xavior.

A cause of death has yet to be made public.

A few days later, on Oct. 19, state investigators working on the case assisted federal authorities as they executed a search warrant in an illegal firearms case in New Sharon. Authorities with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation would not say specifically why they believe the cases might be linked.

“DCI assisted in the search in the event that it may be connected (to Harrelson), just because of the proximity,” Assistant DCI Director Mitch Mortvedt said at the time. New Sharon is about 13 miles from Montezuma.

According to the Mitchell Family Funeral Home, services for Xavior will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at Journey Church in Marshalltown, where he was born, and he will be buried at Riverside Cemetery.

“He was a fourth-grader at Montezuma and he loved school: greeting all the teachers every morning, learning about the presidents and moving along to the beats and rhythm of music class,” his obituary reads.

“Xavior loved everything and everyone. He especially enjoyed being outside and riding his bike. He also liked playing video games, building elaborate Lego worlds, using his imagination and playing cars,” the obituary continues. “He was thoughtful and courteous, always willing to open a door for people. Xavior was very outgoing and talkative, always trying to make people laugh. He was a light and joy in a dark world and will be missed deeply by all those who knew him.”