When a child goes missing, the worst thoughts enter a parent’s mind. Fear, blame, panic, this is just the beginning. Could there possibly be a worse feeling? One moment everything is fine, and the next, there’s a search party with hundreds of people from the community banding together to sweep the dense forest. All it takes is one moment of not looking and your whole world can change.
When 3-year-old Casey Hathaway went missing on Tuesday just outside of his grandmother’s home in Ernul, North Carolina, the whole town was out looking for him amid heavy rain and bad weather conditions in the low 20s F (0 C).
The boy was playing with two other children in his grandmother’s yard before he vanished. There was no sign of abduction, therefore there was no amber alert, however, it was two days before he was found about a quarter mile away. There were 600 volunteers, FBI officials, divers, and state authorities who swept across acres upon acres, but it was a neighbor who was out walking her dogs who heard a faint cry. She ended up calling the sheriff and Casey was found tangled up in thorny bushes in the forest, cold and soaked (at one point, the weather conditions were so cold and so bad, they had to call off the search) but otherwise alive and well.
How on earth was the boy able to survive? County Sheriff Chip Hughes says, according to the boy, “He did say that he had a friend in the woods that was a bear that was with him.” While the boy was found a little lethargic and shaken up but overall healthy and safe, even his grandmother says via a Facebook post, “He says he hung out with a bear for two days. God sent him a friend to keep him safe. God is a good God. Miracles do happen.”
While it’s very unclear what happened during Casey’s disappearance, the kid somehow beat the odds of surviving, and no one really knows how. Police don’t think the boy was stuck in the briars for the entire duration of his disappearance, but it’s unconfirmed what else he was doing. His parents are relieved and thrilled that the boy is safe and back home. He and his family are happy, eating Cheetos and watching Netflix – warm and indoors.
Click the video below to see more of this incredible story about a little boy with some serious survival instincts.
