closed cases > Joshua Childers-found (closed case)

Missing boy found alive!

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goinsfl:
By Patrick M. O'Connell
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
05/06/2009


MADISON COUNTY, Mo. -- Searchers found 3-year-old Joshua Childers alive this afternoon. He had disappeared Monday from his parents' home.

The Madison County Sheriff's Department said this afternoon that the boy was found alive. The boy was taken to an area hospital where he was being examined by doctors, the sheriff said.

Madison County, Mo. Sheriff David Lewis said the 3-year-old was found safe by a volunteer searcher at 4 p.m.

"He's in good condition. He's in the hospital and he's fine," Lewis said, speaking at a church camp where searchers had gathered to scour the rugged terrain for Joshua Childers.

He said the boy was found about 3 miles from the home near the Madison County and Iron County line where he had wandered away from on Monday.

Lewis said the search area had been expanded today and that all volunteers had been welcomed. Earlier, the search area had been more limited and authorities had relied on professional searchers.

"Today we brought out everybody we could get," he said.

The sheriff said his friend Donnie Halpin found the boy.

Becky Halpin, Donnie's wife, said her husband is a construction worker from Fredericktown who decided to join the search for Joshua on Wednesday morning when rain washed out his work day.


The area where the boy was found was extremely muddy and in the rugged Mark Twain National Forest.

More than 300 volunteers braved muddy conditions and long waits to help find the lost boy.

"Many people come together for many certain things down here, so this doesn't surprise me one bit," said volunteer searcher Randy Johnson, who attends church up the road from the volunteer search base camp.

Johnson was one of dozens of people who waited more than 15 hours Tuesday, only to never find a way into the actual search grid for the toddler who on Monday wandered away from his home in the hilly, rugged terrain of rural Madison County.

Sheriff deputies, the state highway and water patrols and the FBI had a command post set up about 2 miles up Highway D from the Blue Mountain United Methodist Camp, where scores of volunteers, most in hunting or hiking gear, have signed up to help.

Undeterred, Johnson returned to the camp at 7:30 a.m. this morning, and was promptly shuttled to the search area near Joshua's home.

Roads that on Tuesday were dusty are now slippery with mud, but the rain has stopped. Still, the tops of the area mountains, including Van East Mountain near the Childers home, are shrouded in fog.

The sheriff has vowed to look for the boy until he is found.

Volunteers are using ATVs, horses, dogs to help them with the search. Several hundred pickups, flatbed trucks and small sedans line more than a half mile of Highway D, which is shut down where the pavement ends about 5 miles south of Missouri 72.

Several volunteers parked at the junction and hiked to the base camp, determined to join in the search.


http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/77FD945CEC62F8FB862575AE000D7BB3?OpenDocument



Thank you god another happy ending.

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