IRON COUNTY, Mo. — After 52 hours alone in the woods, 3-year-old Joshua Childers had a simple request for those who rescued him. He wanted a glass of milk.
Iron County Sheriff Allen Mathes was one of the first to see the boy, who was wearing just a T-shirt and one shoe when he was found Wednesday afternoon by volunteers.
"We asked him where he'd been, and he said he'd been on a hike," Mathes said.
About a half dozen television news trucks were parked this morning across the street from the Jefferson Regional Medical Center, trying to get a glimpse of the rescued child.
At about 10: 45 a.m., hospital spokesman Rick Fischer told reporters that he had just spoke to Joshua's father, who has been by his son's side all morning. Adam Childers told Fischer that the family is weary, but happy. Joshua is listed in fair condition and doctors are continuing to monitor his health. Joshua could be released from the hospital today or Friday.
"He's uncomfortable, but his prognosis is good," Fischer said.
The boy had been missing since midday Monday, when he walked away from home just off a dirt road near the line between Madison and Iron counties.
His disappearance sparked a massive search and fears that such a little boy could not survive on his own in the Mark Twain National Forest.
His grandmother Terry Schulte said her belief that he would be found safe started to wane Wednesday morning.
"Then I was preparing for the worst," Schulte said.
But around 4 p.m., a volunteer searcher found Joshua in a rugged area between the Van East and Brown mountains, in a steep and forested area not far from the western paved section of Highway D, south of Missouri Highway 72 in Iron County.
He was safe — scraped up, dirty, thirsty and tired, but safe.
Joshua told his family that he'd been walking to his grandmother's house, which is about five miles away, Schulte said. And he'd headed in the general direction, said Schulte, who spoke to reporters outside the Iron County Hospital in Pilot Knob, where Joshua was taken for observation. He was later transferred to Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Crystal City to be checked out by its pediatric unit.
"I'm so happy, you can't believe it," said Madison County Sheriff David Lewis, who had helped lead the search that spanned the border of Madison and Iron counties.
The boy was found about a mile and a half northwest of where he had wandered away.
"This is some of the most rugged terrain you've ever seen," Lewis said.
Temperatures in that area hit the mid-40s at night and were in the mid- to upper-60s during most of the days Joshua was gone, according to the National Weather Service.
"I don't know how he did it," said Adam Childers, the boy's father. "I know grown men who couldn't do it. All I can say is he's a tough little bugger."
He said his son figured out how to unlock a deadbolt, which is how he got outside in the first place. He also said that searchers found a large paw print near his son and he marveled at the boy's survival skills.
"He's just a little country boy," Adam Childers said. "We cut wood together, and we play in the snow together, but you can't train a kid to do what he did in the woods for three days."
Donnie Halpin, 57, a construction worker from Fredricktown, was the searcher who found the boy. He said he got separated from his search group, and was following an ATV track when he saw two dogs. He followed them and saw Joshua, who was covered in dirt and bark, in the thick undergrowth.
"All I saw was his little butt," Halpin said. "He wasn't moving so I said, 'Hey, buddy,' and he just sat right up and grinned at me. I said, "You want to go home?' He said, 'Yeah.'"
Authorities said the dogs belong to people who live nearby.
"I was glad I was there," he said.
Halpin, who is a grandfather, picked up Joshua, and they walked about half a mile to the home of Bob and Mary Jane Savage.
Halpin said he gave Joshua part of his candy bar on their walk.
Mary Jane Savage, 62, said she gave Joshua the milk he requested and a couple of sips of water. She also got him out of his wet shirt and dried him off.
"I said, 'Where have you been?' and he said 'I took a hike,' And I said, 'You sure did.'"
Christopher J. Hartshorn, the chief of Tri-State Search and Rescue in Jersey County in Illinois, said his search group was following a set of footprints along a deer trail when word came over the radio that the child had been found near their search grid.
After a few seconds' pause, additional word trickled in to the searchers: Joshua was alive and OK. The searchers all yelled with joy.
Joshua was found about a mile west of where his right shoe was discovered by a different crew Monday evening.
Hartshorn said the terrain where Joshua spent two nights was filled with hollow logs and other natural protections such as rocky outcroppings that the boy could have used for protection against the elements. Hartshorn theorizes Joshua likely was following a trampled deer path on Wednesday, which would have provided the small boy with a path of little resistance.
Crews halted their search late Tuesday, and it rained most of the night. They resumed their efforts before 6 a.m. Wednesday and the boy was found 10 hours later, the Madison County sheriff's office said.
"We can never thank them enough, for the rest of their lives," said Paula Wakefield, Joshua's great-grandmother.
Pam Akers, Shawn Hornbeck's mother, was at the search scene and said she spoke to the Childerses earlier Wednesday and told them not to give up hope, no matter what.
"For a long time they are going to pinch themselves and say, 'Is this really true? Is he really home?'" Akers said Wednesday night from the volunteer search base camp. "I'm just so happy for that family."
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