Muddy footprint leads rescuers to 6-year-old missing for two days
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A muddy footprint helped lead rescuers to a six-year-old boy who vanished for two days in Kentucky, according to reports.
Roman Heilman, a six-year-old boy with autism, vanished at around 4 p.m. on November 1 in the city of Louisa. Kentucky State Police spokesperson Sherry Bray told The Lexington Herald-Leader that he reportedly walked away from his parents’ home.
On Wednesday, Kentucky State Police confirmed that the youngster, who is nonverbal, had been found following the issuance of an IAN Alert.
Speaking to CBS News, Travis Hughes, the Lawrence County emergency management director, described the huge effort to find Heilman – which involved more than 300 volunteers searching both on foot and horseback in the wooded area near the city. Many of them sang If You’re Happy and You Know It, which is one of the boy’s favorite songs.
Eventually, a muddy footprint was found which led the search team to a jacket, pants and a diaper.
“We knew this child was without clothes and we knew there was weather moving in, raining,” Hughes said. “So we wanted to put our horseback teams in there with the ground searchers.”
Jacob Mullins, a local resident, had joined the search effort after his friend texted him and said that they should take a day off from work to find Heilman.
“There was about 10 of us,” he told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “We were all on horses in the woods before daylight. And we rode the horses a total of 14-plus miles, trekking around trying to find him.”
“We found him probably about a mile and a half from his house,” Mullins told the outlet. “He came out of the bushes saying ‘E-I-E-I-O horsey.’ He just walked right out of the bushes over onto a horse trail.”
Hughes also opened up about the moment that Heilman was found, telling CBS News that the boy and his dog appeared from the brush. The youngster, who is believed to have vanished with the dog, was naked and covered in scratches.
Footage showing rescuers taking Heilman to safety was obtained by Metro, with the clip showing a woman holding the boy as they travel on horseback.
“He’s tougher than pig iron,” one man says.
Officials told CBS News that Heilman remained in an area hospital as of November 4 to recover from dehydration.
On social media, Hughes thanked those involved in the rescue effort, which had involved helicopters, drones, units from Kentucky State Police and the Kentucky National Guard, and Ohio and West Virginia search-and-rescue teams.
“In fact, at one point, we had so many people wanting to help that we had to ask additional volunteers to hold off while we organized the resources we already had.”
“I’m still trying to process everything that happened,” he continued. “Between the long hours, the emotions, the concern for this child’s safety, and the overwhelming amount of support, it’s honestly difficult to put into words.”
