Cool temperatures and a towel that created an air pocket probably kept him alive, according to the local sheriff.
An 11-month-old boy has been rescued alive after spending about 24 hours buried underground in a dog crate in the US state of South Carolina, where police say he was left by his father.
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Koah Sharp was found on Tuesday in woodland on a neighbour’s property, crying and covered in dirt, his grandfather John Comer told the Associated Press news agency on Wednesday.
Soon afterwards, the baby stopped crying, and once he had been lifted on to the back of a truck, he sat up.
“I became ecstatic, my hands straight in the air. I’m looking in the sky, jumping up and down, praising God,” John Comer said. “And at the same time I hit my knees and I’m just crying.”
Koah is expected to make a full recovery, Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said after leaving hospital.
The boy’s father, 25-year-old Michael Comer, has been charged with attempted murder. He has been in custody since Monday, the day Koah went missing, and was arrested while hiding in a building in the town of Batesburg-Leesville.
Authorities have not given any details of a possible motive. It was not immediately clear whether Michael Comer has a lawyer who could respond to the charges. A court hearing was scheduled for Thursday.
Freshly disturbed soil and cries from underground
Dozens of emergency workers searched the countryside for the boy with reddish-blond hair. After a full day, they found freshly disturbed soil and heard crying coming from beneath the ground, Koon said.
“As you can imagine, the race was on. Everyone was trying to get him out,” the sheriff said.
He said Koah had probably survived thanks to cool temperatures and an air pocket created by a towel wrapped around the buried crate. When rescuers freed him, the boy was “clinging to life”, Koon added.
“We’re better now that we know that Koah is safe,” said his great-aunt, Amber Hammond, who watched as he was pulled from the crate.
Taken before a carer arrived
According to authorities, Koah had been in the care of Michael Comer’s mother. She left the boy with her son while she ran an errand, as another carer was on the way.
“By the time the caregiver got there, Michael was gone, and Koah was gone with him,” Koon said.
Surveillance footage from several local businesses showed Michael Comer without the baby on Monday afternoon, the sheriff added.
John Comer said he had taken in his son and grandson on Monday, after Michael Comer told him they needed somewhere to stay. He now feels his son took advantage of him, he said, but he is grateful he agreed: if they had gone elsewhere, Koah might not have been found in time.
“It just seems like he already had this planned out, and he knew what he was doing,” he said. “And he took the opportunity to do what he did. And if it hadn’t have been here, I don’t think anybody would have known where he would have went, and this would be a completely different story.”
Hammond said her nephew had talked about taking the baby to New York because “he didn’t want to be in the same state as the mom”. When Koah disappeared, she and other relatives assumed Michael Comer had handed him over to someone.
“We had no idea something like this would happen at all,” she said.
Koah’s parents “have had some situations”, Koon said. “Children,” he added, “sometimes get caught in the middle.”
In October, Michael Comer was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to domestic violence and aggravated breach-of-the-peace charges over an arrest in July, according to Lexington County court records. Prosecutors dropped a gun charge as part of a plea deal, and he was credited with more than two months already spent in jail.
Hammond, who looked after Koah last weekend, said he had been trying to stand on his own and loved watching Mickey Mouse cartoons.
John Comer said he had never heard his grandson cry before he was found underground.
“He’s always been happy,” he said. “The kid’s always got a smile on his face.”