JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) – Searchers have combed over 60 bodies of water, 40 square miles, and more than 2,000 homes and businesses in recent days, looking for a toddler who went missing eight days ago after his mother’s boyfriend said someone stole his car while the boy slept inside, officials said Friday. Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office detective Chief Tom Hackney said during a news conference that the search for 21-month-old Lonzie Barton in northeast Florida will soon be being scaled back, but the investigation into the boy’s disappearance is ongoing. “I do not want that beautiful boy’s resting place to be anything but the softest of the soft,” Hackney said. Lonzie went missing July 23. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said the man who lived with Lonzie’s mother and was caring for the boy and his 5-year-old sister is a suspect. Investigators have said William Ruben Ebron Jr. isn’t cooperating with them. He’s in jail without bond on two counts of felony child neglect in relation to the case, but investigators won’t give details on those charges, citing privacy laws. Ebron has a lengthy arrest history, records show, including convictions for misdemeanor battery charges, robbery and grand theft. His ex-girlfriend also filed several domestic violence injunctions against him. Ebron initially told authorities that Lonzie was in the car when it was stolen. The car was quickly recovered, but Lonzie was not. Ebron told The Florida Star newspaper on Wednesday that he was caring for his girlfriend’s two children. He told The Star that the 5-year-old girl wanted to stay inside an apartment with his roommate. Lonzie, he told the paper, was asleep in the car. Ebron said he left Lonzie in the car to go inside to charge his cellphone, and when he returned to the car, he saw it take off. Officers found the car shortly after Ebron called police, but detectives want to know where it traveled that night. Hackney said Lonzie’s mother has been cooperative, but he called Ebron’s interview with the paper “fiction.” “I’m tired of asking him to do the right thing,” Hackney said. A call to the Duval County Public Defender’s office, which is representing Ebron, was not immediately returned. The reward to find Lonzie now stands at more than $12,000. Officials said they’ve received upwards of 400 tips in the case. The search for Lonzie also turned up two unrelated sets of human remains. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said this week that a man’s remains and clothing were found Monday near a business park. They had apparently been there at least a year. Foul play wasn’t suspected. On Tuesday, searchers found a car linked to a 2003 missing-persons case at the bottom of a pond. Skeletal remains appeared to be inside.