A 11-month-old baby boy, who is believed to have been buried for about 24 hours, has been found alive inside a dog crate in South Carolina.
Koah Sharpe, described as a 20-pound boy with reddish hair, went missing on Monday after being left in his father’s care at his mother’s home while she ran an errand.
According to local reports, another caregiver was coming to the house, but by the time that person arrived, the father and son were nowhere to be found.
The infant was then reported missing and authorities began a widespread search.
He was found Tuesday, wrapped in a towel in a dog crate, shallowly buried in the woods in South Carolina on Tuesday.
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"Certainly God is good,” Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said during a news conference.
“Just a few moments ago, we found little Koah, 11 months old, buried alive, clinging to life, crying — the most joyful sound you ever heard of a crying baby.”
The infant’s father, Michael Comer, 25, was arrested on Monday night on burglary and resisting arrest in the area of Batesburg-Leesville.
The Lexington County Sheriff Department is working with the solicitor's office to determine additional charges.
Comer’s mother, Patricia Comer, said in a phone interview Tuesday that she was shocked and that her son’s being in police custody was “where he needs to be.”
She said she never “expected this from him.”
It is believed Koah’s mother has full custody of the child, but that there was no custody agreement preventing Comer from watching the child unsupervised.
Koah was found after a search party of nearly 100 first responders discovered “freshly disturbed” dirt in the woods about 50 yards from Comer’s father’s house.
The infant is currently receiving care at a hospital. It is believed that the towel he was wrapped in may have created an “air pocket” that helped him survive the incident.
"Hopefully at 11 months old, he will not remember much of this as he grows older, just to have a great inspiring story to tell," Sheriff Koon added.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were part of the search for the child.
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