An 11-year-old girl who was reported missing in Saskatchewan was found alive by searchers “face down in the snow.”
The girl’s mother reported the girl missing to Wynyard RCMP late Thursday afternoon.
The mother believed her daughter left their Bankend home sometime between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.
She had left the child at home while she went out, as the girl was sick.
Police said they were called after the mother followed tracks from the residence as far as she could, and checked with her neighbours.
A search team was quickly mobilized and set out to locate the girl.
Police said a local volunteer came across a set of footprints just outside the search area roughly two hours into the search and followed the track in a four-by-four across an open field.
The track continued through light bush toward a frozen slough where the girl was found collapsed face down in the snow, police said, roughly six kilometres west of Bankend.
She was taken to hospital in Wynyard for treatment of hypothermia and injuries related to exposure.
The temperature at the time was -15 C with a wind chill of -19.
Bankend is roughly 240 southeast of Saskatoon.
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