An 11-month-old boy missing for about a day in Lexington County, South Carolina, was found alive Tuesday, Nov. 10, inside a dog crate buried in the woods, Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said at a news conference. The boy, Koah Sharpe, was taken to a hospital.
His father, Michael Comer, 25, is in custody. Koon said Comer was arrested on burglary and resisting arrest charges, and that investigators are working with prosecutors on additional charges. He did not say what they would be. Comer is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Koah was in the care of his paternal grandmother on Monday, Nov. 9, when Comer came to the house, according to Koon, and she stepped out to run an errand while another caregiver was still on the way. That caregiver arrived to find Comer and the baby gone. Deputies were called around lunchtime. At the home of Comer's father they found the doors open and the baby's belongings inside, Koon said, but no sign of either of them. Then investigators found video of Comer, without the child, at several places around Batesburg-Leesville.
"Certainly we got worried, hoping and praying that he dropped the baby with another person," the sheriff said. "As the day went on and nobody came forward, it was certainly more and more concerning."
Deputies found Comer late Monday night in an outbuilding on a property in Batesburg and arrested him. Koah was not with him.
Comer would not say where the boy was, Koon said.
How searchers found him
On Tuesday, a search team noticed pine straw and "freshly disturbed dirt" about 50 yards into the woods near the home of Comer's father, Koon said. As they started digging, they heard Koah crying.
"As you imagine, the race was on. Everybody's getting down there trying to get him out," Koon said.
Koah was inside a wire dog crate wrapped in a towel. The towel "probably created an air pocket," the sheriff said, and by his estimate Koah had been underground for about 24 hours before the search team reached him. Koon called the sound of the baby's cries "the most joyful sound you ever heard of a crying baby."
No court date has been released, and the department has not updated Koah's condition since he went to the hospital. Koon mentioned earlier problems between Comer and the child's mother but gave no details.
