Posted on 04/03/2011 2:31:19 AM PDT by grundle
ELGIN, SC (WIS) - A missing 2-year-old boy in Elgin was found Saturday morning after Kershaw County deputies say the family dog kept him warm and safe all night.
Sheriff Jim Matthews said 22-month-old Tyler Jacobson was reunited with his family after he was found across the street behind a neighbor's home when someone reported hearing crying in the area.
Tyler was reported missing around 8:00pm Friday from a residence on Ashley Creek Drive. Matthews said the boy's mother, 25-year-old Jacklyn Marie Jacobson, and her boyfriend Jose Gloria told investigators Tyler went to get some juice and didn't come back.
Kershaw County deputies used a bloodhound tracking team and a SLED helicopter with infrared capabilities, but called the search off around 12:30am Saturday. The search resumed around 7:45am, and the boy was found shortly thereafter. "Just thinking that a dog would watch a baby over the night, it's kind of like a movie instead of real life," said Emily DuBose, who lives in the house outside which the baby was found.
DuBose had no idea a story of devotion and survival was playing out right outside her door. "When we saw the choppers last night, we just assumed a criminal was loose, so I locked the door," said Linda Harr, who also lives at the house. "The last thing I was gonna do is go outside."
"I heard some barking early in the morning, but I didn't really think about it, I just heard dogs barking," said DuBose.
But during the night, Jacobson's dog was keeping watch over his 22-month-old master in temperatures that got down to the 40s. "I just wish I'd have known, I could have warmed him up, called the cops," said Harr.
Now, words of praise for the dog who likely helped save little Tyler's life. "Since he belonged to them, he must have followed them the whole way, so that's very special," said Harr.
And so this story has a happy ending, thanks to the special bond of a child's best friend.
Sheriff Matthews said the family was interviewed Friday night, and again on Saturday. He said the boy's biological father is in the Army and stationed in Hawaii, and is currently on his way back to Kershaw County.
Something about this doesn’t add up.
Yes, it’s called a drug-user.
The dog AND the kid were missing. Those bloodhounds should be fired.
whats wrong with the blood hound? Can’t find a baby thats only across the street?
Baby’s daddy away, mama w/ Jose?!
I agree! I have a 3 year old Bloodhound that is a natural tracker and he would have found the kid in a nano second and he’s not even trained to track. Something is weird with this story but I’m glad his dog was with him.
How true. Smart dogs always want to show their owner something.
ping
Doggie/SC ping!
[Thanks, siamesecats!]
How on earth would the mom not be out searching all night? Good grief the neighbor didn’t even know the child was missing? Seems the first thing you do is knock on the neighbors doors and ask them if they’ve seen anything.
Yea right!
Good God, I thought the same thing!
The police don’t go door to door..or alert neighbors? Amber alert?
I have been called with an automated call on an Amber alert on my cell phone.
this whole story doesn’t make sense.
What, the little tyke set out for the 7-11 with the dog and forgot his keys?
My guess is this bad man Jose wanted to get a little bit closer to the baby's mama without the toodler need for attention and locked the tyke and his dog outside. Drugs and alcohol probably played a role as well.
Something doesn’t sound right about this story...
Dogs, infrared, choppers and called off search after midnight(due to...weather?), neighbors locking doors instead of helping search?
Dogs, not able to track another dog and child?...literally a few hundred feet away?
ELGIN, S.C. — The only things that protected 22-month-old Tyler Jacobson from the frigid overnight temperatures Friday were a T-shirt, a diaper and his favorite buddy — a mixed Labrador retriever.
“To tell you the truth, that dog is what kept him alive,” Kershaw County Sheriff Jim Matthews told The State on Saturday.
The heat from that dog may also be what prevented an infrared-equipped search helicopter from spotting the missing child.
Authorities weren’t told that the child’s best buddy was also missing when the 911 call came in to the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Department about 8 p.m. Friday night.
The boy’s mother, Jacklyn Marie Jacobson, and her boyfriend Jose Gloria told investigators that Tyler went missing after leaving the bedroom where they were all watching a movie to get some juice.
The call to authorities about 45 minutes later prompted a massive search of the wooded area radiating out from the home on Ashley Creek Drive in Elgin, S.C. Bloodhounds and about 25 members of area fire and police departments combed the woods while a helicopter ran a tight search pattern overhead.
“The infrared picked up a lot of deer and other animals but no little boy,” Matthews said. The chopper flew until the need to refuel and increasing winds forced it to ground around 3 a.m.
The searchers checked a nearby stream, and the above-ground pool in the Jacobsons’ backyard, to no avail.
The search resumed Saturday morning with about 75 police, fire department and civilian volunteers. A man walking down the street alerted some searchers that he thought he heard crying in the woods.
A crying Tyler, and his dog, was found about 200 yards from the road, a quarter-mile from his home. Cold but otherwise, apparently, OK. He was examined by emergency personnel on the scene and taken to a local clinic for evaluation.
The boy’s biological father was flying home from his military assignment in Hawaii on Saturday night. Matthews said the state Department of Social Services had been notified that the living conditions in the boy’s home were “deplorable.”
“state Department of Social Services had been notified that the living conditions in the boy’s home were “deplorable.””
Drugs and booze and not much else.
Sounds fishy but thank God for this loyal and faithful servant. That dog was the angel sent to watch over his master.
Why wasn’t the neighbor notified? If my neighbor came and knocked on my door looking for a missing child we would have been out looking for this child.
I suspect daddy will be angry when he gets there!!
Fortunately that baby has a dog. He sure doesn’t have much of momma, it would appear.
A man walking down the street heard a cry, that doesn’t sound right. he probably kidnapped him abused him and brought him back, and than just happened to be the one to hear him cry.
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