A 2-year-old boy from Vermont found dead in a brook early Saturday may have been dropped there by his father as he fled the scene of a car crash in northwestern Massachusetts, police said.

Massachusetts State Police troopers were called to the site of the crash in Clarksburg just before 2 a.m. Authorities learned that the child was missing and searched the Hudson Brook. Police and Clarksburg firefighters pulled the child from the brook and took him to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

A preliminary police investigation concluded that the boy's father, later identified as Darel A. Galorenzo, a 35-year-old man from Readsboro, Vermont, likely dropped him into the waterway as he was fled the crash scene on foot.

MASSACHUSETTS MAN FOUND DEAD ON SIDE OF COHASSET ROAD: POLICE

Galorenzo was found nearby, taken into custody and charged with operating under the influence. He was later charged also with manslaughter, reckless endangerment of a child and negligent operating of a motor vehicle.