5 days ago
2 Young Brothers Go to Play Near the Woods, Then Get Lost. Authorities Found Them Alive the Next Morning
NEED TO KNOW
Two young brothers were found safe in a wooded area in central Mississippi in the early morning hours of Sunday, Aug. 3
The search began the evening before, after the siblings got lost in the woods
Authorities urge parents to arrange a set time for children to return home when they're playing outsideAfter an overnight search, two young brothers were found alive and well in a wooded area in central Mississippi.
On Saturday, Aug. 2, authorities received a report at around 8 p.m. local time that two boys, ages 8 and 10, were missing near Cato Circle in Pearl, a city of about 27,000 people just east of Jackson, the state capital. The residential area is surrounded by dense woods, the Chief of the Pearl Police Department, Nick McLendon, tells PEOPLE.
Before their family reported them missing, the brothers were playing outside, in a ditch near the edge of the tree line.
'It started getting dark, and they thought they were walking home, but they were walking deeper in the woods,' says McLendon. 'Next thing they know, it's totally pitch black dark and they're in the woods lost.'
Not long after, authorities had close to a hundred resources on the ground, from drones and K-9s to search and rescue teams. In nearby Jenkins Park, a command center was set up, the chief of police says. A coordinated search effort was underway by 10 p.m.
Emergency responders began the search with drones in the air and the dogs searching the wooded area. While the dogs eventually lost the scent, they had helped narrow down the search area, McLendon says.
'We had a pretty good area of where they last located the scent and footprints in the creek,' he says. At around 1:15 a.m. the next morning, the brothers were found by a heat-seeking drone about 1,000 meters into the wooded area. They were found lying down, according to authorities.
'They just got lost in the woods, got turned around,' says McLendon. The boys told officials that when it got dark and they were still lost, they decided 'to sleep there and wait for the sun to come up.'
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They were transported to a local hospital, but were determined to be unharmed.
McLendon says their family was 'ecstatic' that the kids were found safe.
'They were happy to be reunited with their kids,' he says.
While officials encourage children to play outside, they urge their parents to keep an eye on them.
'We'd love for them to get off the devices and be kids outside, but just monitor them,' says McLendon. 'Especially when it starts to get dark, they need to have a set time to start coming back home.'
Read the original article on People
