A missing South Carolina 2-year-old was found by hunters and safely returned to her parents after a dramatic search.
According to local WIS 10 news, little Sarah Grice was put down for a nap in her Newberry County home around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, but when her parents checked on her, she was gone.
Mekayla Grice said, “Gary’s mother was visiting us (and) he walked her out to the car (through) the back door.”
“Within four minutes of his mother pulling out, he came inside and said, ‘Where’s Sarah?” she recalled.
The family searched the area for 10 minutes before calling the police. When Sarah was nowhere to be found, a search party was organized, involving first responders, friends, and family.
The Newberry County Sheriff’s Officer posted about the rescue on Facebook. They wrote, “Around 6:00pm, A deer hunter heard her crying. He called Newberry County 911, which began to track them through our mapping technology.”
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“This information was transmitted to a SLED helicopter and the first responders. A search team found the hunters and the little girl in a wooded area about a mile from her home,” the post continued.
It then noted that, after being checked over in a county EMS ambulance, Sarah was deemed “in good shape.”
The Sheriff’s Office thanked everyone involved in the rescue and concluded, “It was truly a miraculous find.”
Mekayla Grice told WIS 10 news, “In our brains, if she was going to be found in the woods, it was going to be straight back.”
“To have gone a mile in a completely different direction is just astounding,” she added.
She also expressed concerns about her daughter wandering so close to hunters. She stated, “It was a scary thought because what if someone sees movement and doesn’t realize it’s a child.”
Then she went on, “Instead, we got a great response that [helped find] our baby.”