DUCHESNE COUNTY, Utah, July 11, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — Helicopter crews found a 6-year-old boy who walked nearly seven miles after becoming lost in the canyon country south of Myton in Duchesne County, officials said Wednesday.
The little boy was “tired and disoriented” but otherwise healthy when he was found by the crew of a medical helicopter that had been called in to help deputies search for the boy, according to a news release from Duchesne County Sheriff’s Office.
Duchense County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a missing person call in an area near the end of Five Mile Road and Gate Canyon Ridge, on July 6th.
“The man who called for help said he’d been searching for his grandson for about 30 minutes after the boy wandered off but could not find him,” the news release said. “The sergeant asked dispatchers to put a Classic Air Medical helicopter on standby.”
Officials then began working to try to find the man who had called dispatch so they could get a starting point to begin a search for the missing child.
Fifteen minutes later, still unable to find the man, officials asked dispatchers to send Classic Air Medical to the area to help with the search. The decision was made in part because it was 94 degrees at the time and the terrain in the area is extremely rugged, the news release said.
Officials then found the man who had called to report his grandson missing.
“He was very emotional but was able to show me the last footprint that he found,” said Sgt. Carl Reilley, who was assigned to the case, in the news release.
Reilley and Sheriff David Boren began following the tracks left by the child’s size four cowboy boots, while other officials waited for the helicopter to arrive.
When the helicopter reached the scene, Reilley let the crew know what direction the child’s tracks were heading and asked the pilot to fly ahead of searchers on the ground.
“After approximately 15 minutes, Classic notified me that they found the child six nautical miles from (where he was last seen),” Reilley said. Six nautical miles equal just under seven land measured miles.
The helicopter crew picked the child up and returned him to the point where the search began.
“The child was reunited with his grandfather and father, who had just arrived,” Reilley said, adding that the child was “tired and disoriented but healthy” and was treated at the scene by the medical helicopter crew.
The child has not been identified by officials.
