A photograph of three-year-old Noah Woods appeared on the big screen before Everton’s Premier League home match against Ipswich Town on Saturday, as players from both sides wore black armbands in tribute to the boy whose body was found in Suffolk this week.
Three minutes after kick-off in Liverpool, supporters from both clubs stood to applaud in memory of Noah, who was non-verbal, partially deaf and had been undergoing an assessment for autism.
The toddler became separated from a relative after visiting a playground in Brantham on Tuesday afternoon, Suffolk police said. About 1,300 members of the public joined a search that ended on Wednesday, when police divers recovered a body from a nearby lake.
His father, Rhys Woods, paid tribute in a message shared on a community Facebook group on Thursday. “There are no words to describe the pain of this loss, we are all absolutely heartbroken,” he wrote. “Noah was the sweetest and most innocent little boy, with nothing but love to give, and we are going to miss him so very much.”
Ipswich captain Dara O’Shea and goalkeeper Christian Walton were among a delegation from the Suffolk club who laid flowers at the playground where the boy went missing. Town defender Leif Davis donated £2,000 to a fundraising appeal set up by the Good Dads Club, a group of fathers in Colchester, Essex, to support Noah’s family.
The appeal had received more than £100,000 from over 6,000 supporters by Saturday evening.
Suffolk constabulary said the child’s death was not being treated as suspicious, though the force still has a number of inquiries to complete before submitting a file to the coroner.