Editor’s Note: This has been a far reaching story of love and compassion aired on both NBC and CBS yesterday. This report is from a Louisville newspaper well known throughout the nation. EMS director Travis Hughes has a heartfelt thank you to the community for its amazing participation in the rescue on the EMS Facebook site this morning.
6-year-old found after days-long search in Eastern Kentucky
During the search, responders found the boy’s fresh, muddy footprints and his clothes, which gave them “tremendous hope” that he was still alive.
A 6-year-old child with autism who was reported missing in eastern Kentucky was found Nov. 3 after a days-long search effort involving hundreds of responders.
According to a Facebook post, Lawrence County Emergency Management requested the public’s assistance in locating the boy Nov. 1 after he was last seen around 3:45 p.m. in the 900 block of Tadpole Road near Richardson, Kentucky. Officials said the boy was wearing Crocs, a green fur jacket and red and white monster pants.
Officials spoke with the boy’s mother and special education teachers and learned he responded to “If You’re Happy and You Know It” by clapping his hands, Lawrence County Emergency Management Director Travis Hughes told The Courier Journal.
“That was the first thing that we made sure our rescue teams knew, that our volunteers knew, that were on the ground searching for him,” Hughes said.
Officials also told search teams to avoid saying the boy’s name out loud because “he thinks that he’s in trouble” when he hears it.
During the search, responders found the boy’s fresh, muddy footprints and his clothes, which gave them “tremendous hope” that he was still alive. Rain had moved through the area the evening of Nov. 1 into Nov. 2, and more rain was expected the morning of Nov. 4, Hughes said.
“Him being in those elements, being outside, we knew that we wanted to locate him as quickly as we could,” Hughes said.
Search teams on horseback found the boy with his dog around 10:30 a.m. Nov. 3. He was taken to a local hospital with scratches and cuts, and he received fluids for dehydration.
Hughes said the response is “something [he’ll] never forget.”
“It wasn’t me. It wasn’t one person at all. This was just a big, total team effort,” Hughes said. “This is what happens when a team comes together with one mission and one goal and that was to find that child and bring him back home. I couldn’t ask for a better response.”
