An 11-month-old baby kidnapped by his father has been found alive after being buried underground for about 24 hours inside a dog cage. The episode occurred in Lexington County, South Carolina (United States).
The kidnapping and searches
The search for the little boy, Koah Sharpe, began on Monday afternoon after he was reported missing from his paternal grandmother’s home. The woman had gone away on an errand, leaving her nephew with his 25-year-old father, but when the man’s family and the newborn returned home, they had lost track of her.
Lexington County sheriff’s deputies tracked down and arrested the man late Monday evening in the Batesburg-Leesville area, but got no leads on the child’s whereabouts.
A team of around one hundred rescuers participated in the search. The turning point came on Tuesday afternoon when the officers noticed a portion of loose soil about 50 meters inside a wooded area near the man’s property. At the beginning of the excavation operations, they heard the cries of the newborn. Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said the baby was found “crying the happiest sound you could ever hear from a crying baby.”
The newborn had been closed in a dog transport cage wrapped in a towel and buried at a shallow depth.
The child is in hospital (and will recover)
According to what the sheriff reported, the sponge sheet itself would have allowed the formation of a sufficient air pocket for the little one to breathe for the entire day spent underground. Koah was immediately transferred to hospital. His condition is monitored by doctors, who expect his complete recovery. The sheriff said he hoped that “as he grows up” he forgets the bad aspects of his experience, “but that he simply has a fantastic and inspirational story to tell.” The child’s father is instead in precautionary custody. The local judicial authorities are defining the formal charges against him.