EDMONTON – A girl from northeast of Edmonton gave her community quite a scare when she vanished into the woods Wednesday night.
Elk Point RCMP received a call at 11:14 p.m. from the Frog Lake First Nation, where a nine-year-old girl and her three dogs had walked away from her home around 6 p.m. She was spotted by a community member around 8 p.m., but disappeared after that.
“She was playing outside, riding her bike and ended up wandering across the field here,” the girl’s uncle, Michael Cross, said. “She was following some other little children and ended up getting lost by herself in the bush.”
Police arrived just after midnight to find members of the community had been searching for the girl for hours already, and continued through the night as the temperature dipped down to about 2 or 3 C.
As Mounties were preparing for a more intensive ground and air search Thursday morning, the girl, Meghan Cross, walked out of the bush at 7 a.m. She was discovered by a community member and driven home. The dogs followed the truck all the way home as well.
Cross was taken to the Elk Point Hospital, and despite being outside all night she didn’t have any injuries, frostbite or hypothermia.
When she got home from the hospital, police sat down with the nine-year-old to find out what happened.
“She mentioned that her dogs, her three dogs, were with her for the entire night, and that they laid down and huddled with her to keep her warm through the evening,” Sgt. Barry Larocque with Elk Point RCMP said.
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“I got lost in the woods and I got scared,” Meghan told Global News in a video interview on Facebook.
“I’m not going anywhere today,” the girl replied when asked if she would wander off alone again.
Elk Point RCMP wanted to acknowledge the unwavering efforts of the Frog Lake First Nation community in searching for the little girl throughout the night.
Frog Lake First Nation is about 230 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.
With files from Kory Siegers.
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