A four-year-old boy has been found alive and well after he went missing two days earlier near his home in Montana, authorities said.
Ryker Webb, who went missing on Friday, was finally found by rescuers on Sunday and declared to be in good health, despite telling the search team he was “hungry, thirsty, and cold.”
In the late afternoon on June 3, local authorities received a call from a concerned neighbour saying Webb had disappeared in the Bull Lake area, south of Troy, Mont. According to police, the boy was last been seen playing with the family’s dog in the yard of their home.
In a statement, the Lincoln County Sherriff’s Office said an on-foot search team, ATVs, several drones and dog teams were deployed shortly after the initial call. Police also reported they attempted to deploy two aircraft to search for the boy, but unfavourable weather conditions kept the flights grounded.
Throughout the two-day operation, more search teams were deployed by police, though they reported at the time that “dense vegetation in the area has also proven to be extremely difficult to search.”
A code red was sent to all nearby residents, and neighbours were asked to search their property and surrounding structures.
On June 5, the day of Webb’s discovery, a team of 53 personnel were actively searching for the missing boy, police say.
Webb was found later that day on Pine Ridge Road, approximately four kilometres from where he’d last been seen.
The boy was evaluated by paramedics and sent to Cabinet Peaks Medical Center for further examination.