CALEDONIA, Mich. (WOOD) — A mother is demanding change following the murder of her 6-year-old son.

Brandi Morey-Pols describes her son Rowan Milford Morey as funny, beautiful and a really good golfer. 

“He loved Pokémon. He loved his brothers and sisters,” Morey-Pols said. 

Rowan was set to begin flag football on Monday.

“He couldn’t wait for flag football. He got his little gloves and his little cleats,” she said.

Instead, Morey-Pols and her husband Brian Pols are preparing to lay the boy to rest. 

Rowan’s biological father, Michael Winchell, has had 50/50 custody of him since he was a year old, the child’s mother said.

“I dropped him off Aug. 12 because we were week-on, week-off, Monday 9 a.m. to Monday 9 a.m. So he was supposed to be home on the 19th at 9 a.m.,” Morey-Pols said in an interview with News 8 on Monday. “I knew at 9:03, something was wrong.”

Winchell lived near Mt. Pleasant, so Morey-Pols called the Isabella County Sheriff’s Office to inform them that Rowan hadn’t returned home. 

“I’ve had to call a couple (of) times before because he’s done this before, but he’d only keep him for a few hours here and there, just to terrify me. This time was different,” Morey-Pols explained. “When I called, all (the sheriff’s office) really said they could do is go do a wellness check, so they did.”

Morey-Pols said they were told deputies didn’t make contact with anyone at the residence. She and her husband called the sheriff’s office back later that night. 

“The individual that we talked to was very rude,” Brian Pols said. 

“We called Kent County Sheriff’s (Office) here, and that’s when we got taken seriously,” Morey-Pols said. 

After speaking with the Kent County Sheriff’s Office, the couple decided to drive to the Isabella County Sheriff’s Office around 2 a.m. on Aug 20. At that point, Rowan had been missing for 17 hours.

“When we got to Isabella County, it was the same thing again. We were a nuisance, it felt like. They were bothered that we were there,” Brian Pols said. 

Many agencies require 24 to 72 hours before issuing a missing persons report, and law enforcement in Michigan cannot issue an Amber Alert for children who are with a custodial parent in Michigan. So Morey-Pols met with her attorney Tuesday morning to file an emergency custody motion.

“We were waiting that day just to get it to the judge, to get it signed, because then the police would take it higher and make it bigger, and (the judge) denied it,” Morey Pols said through tears. “There was nothing more we could do up there. So we drove home without him.”

The couple then decided to go to the Michigan State Police post in Mt. Pleasant.

“They heard us out. They cared, which was like Kent County and the very opposite of Isabella County,” Brian Pols said. 

The Isabella County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to News 8’s requests for comment or an update on the investigation, but in a news release sent out on Aug. 21, Sheriff Michael Main said deputies made several unsuccessful attempts to locate the two at Winchell’s residence. 

A detective eventually located a sibling of Winchell who lived downstate. They were also unable to reach him. On Wednesday morning, the family of Winchell arrived at the property and began to look for the pair. A family member decided to break out a window on a camper that was in the rear of the property. Once that occurred, they could see a male that appeared to be deceased.

Law enforcement responded to the property and after using a breaching tool, gained access to the camper and discovered Winchell and Rowan dead. Investigators believe Winchell murdered his son and then died by suicide.

“Rowan deserves more, and the babies that come after him deserve more,” Morey-Pols said. 

“He was missing for well over 48 hours, and they could have potentially stopped this if they’d taken us serious,” Brian Pols said.

“They could have stopped this years ago. No one took me serious. No one heard my pleas that this isn’t a normal person,” Morey-Pols added. “There were so many signs. Shaving his head. (Winchell) shaved (Rowan’s) head bald a week before my oldest son’s wedding. That’s not right. That’s not normal.”

She’s now calling for change. 

“I want to see changes where any (Friend of the Court) case that’s started, both parties get mental health evaluations, and if there’s a red flag there, you’re getting supervised visits until you’re okay because none of this was okay. My son was not treated okay,” Morey-Pols said. 

In addition, she plans to start a nonprofit called Rowan’s Law, in hopes of changing Amber Alert protocol to include parental abductions.

“(The Isabella County Sheriff’s Office) explained they were operating within the law that they’re bound to, which I understand, I do, but that’s when there’s a breakdown in the law, and that’s where the law has to change where every missing child matters, whether it’s a parental kidnapping or not,” Morey-Pols said. 

“That 9 a.m. my son was supposed to be here, he’s got a 30-minute leeway. After that 30 minutes and he’s not there, it’s parental kidnapping and an Ambler Alert should go out, right then and there, because every missing kid matters, even parental kidnapping kids because he was still alive,” she said.

For now, this mother is leaning on her faith, friends and the community and is doing her best to focus on the good memories with her son.

“Such an ugly thing, you just keep looking for the beauty in it. The beauty in him,” she said.

Funeral arrangements for Rowan can be found here. A GoFundMe has also been set up to cover the costs of the funeral, a headstone and to start the nonprofit Rowan’s Law.