Roanoke police have charged the stepfather of Aveion Malik Lewis with child neglect, improper disposal of a human body and obstruction of justice, police said in a news release this afternoon.

Brandon Lockett had told police that on Thursday three men knocked him out and abducted his 2-year-old stepson. On Tuesday, he told police that the child was dead even before he was reported missing.

Police are continuing to search for the toddler's body and have not released information on how Aveion might have died.

On Jan. 14, police were called to the couple's duplex in Jamestown Place in Southeast Roanoke for a reported abduction.

Brandon Lockett told police that three men had knocked him unconscious, ransacked the house and restrained a 4-year-old girl before taking Aveion. Brandon Lockett also said the men left a ransom note demanding $10,000.

The report led to an Amber Alert and police searched for Aveion for days, conducting traffic stops, canvassing his neighborhood and passing out fliers with the boy's picture. Virginia State Police and the FBI also were involved.

But investigators had doubts early on about the validity of the reported abduction, Roanoke Police Chief Joe Gaskins said in a Tuesday news conference.

"We had some reservations about the stories that were being told, but considering the child, we couldn't afford to assume that an abduction had not occurred, so we certainly had to work it from the angle that there had been an abduction," Gaskins said.