A body believed to be that of Maddox Ritch — the autistic boy who vanished in broad daylight at a North Carolina park — was found on Thursday, officials said.

The 6-year-old disappeared during a walk in Rankin Lake Park in Gastonia with his dad, Ian Ritch, and another adult on Saturday, setting off a massive search.

“This is not the end we had hoped for,” said Gastonia Police Department Chief Robert Helton at a press conference. “We wanted to find him healthy and okay, and this is what we had worried would happen.”

A body that local officials and the FBI said they think is Maddox was found in a creek about a mile east of the park at 1 p.m.

A team of about 15 people was scouring the area around Long Creek when a person spotted the remains, partially submerged in the water, said Gastonia Fire Department Chief Phil Welsh.

The area had been searched before, using foot patrols, drones and people on ATVs, officials said. But the body was found in an area particularly obscured by underbrush.

“It’s absolutely amazing he was found,” said Jason Kaplan, an FBI supervisory special agent. “It was extremely difficult to see him even when we were standing right next to him.”

The discovery came as the frantic search for the boy stretched into its sixth day.

Hundreds of people participated in the search and police followed up on 250 leads. Officials even played recordings of the young boy’s father and mother in the park, hoping their voices would draw him out.

Officials said they’d still like to speak to anyone who was at the park that day.

The boy’s father, Ian Ritch, said Wednesday he was racked with guilt for letting his boy out of his sight.

The father and son often went for walks there and Maddox, who has autism and is nonverbal, would run ahead and then stop, waiting for his dad to catch up.

But on Saturday, the child didn’t slow down and disappeared from view, the dad said.

“I feel like I should’ve caught him, not let him get too far,” he said.

After Ritch lost sight of Maddox he searched for him with the help of park officials. But waited an hour to call the police, saying he hoped he would find his son and there would be no reason to.

Authorities are now working to confirm the body’s identity. They’re also looking into cause of death and how the body ended up in the creek, a little over a mile from where Maddox was last seen.

In an emotional plea on Tuesday, the boy’s mother, Carrie Ritch, called him her “whole world and [her] reason for living.”

“I just want my baby home, please, whatever you can do,” she had said.