An 11-month-old South Carolina boy was found alive Tuesday after rescuers dug into freshly disturbed earth and heard him crying from inside a buried dog crate.
Koah Sharp had been missing since Monday afternoon after disappearing with his father, 25-year-old Michael Comer.
Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said the child had been left with Comer at the home of Comer’s mother while she ran an errand.
By the time another caregiver arrived, both father and son were gone.
Relatives reported Koah missing later that afternoon. Investigators widened the search to another family property nearby, the home of Comer’s father.
Both doors were wide open, and Koah’s belongings were still there, but neither the baby nor Comer could be found.
Deputies located Comer late Monday near Batesburg-Leesville. Koah was not with him.
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“Of course, he didn’t have much to say about the whereabouts of the baby at that time,” Koon told ABC News.
Nearly 100 first responders joined the search. Their break came Tuesday afternoon when searchers working about 50 yards into the woods near Comer’s father’s home noticed freshly disturbed soil. Rescuers began probing the ground and digging.
“As they probed it and laid it out and started digging, you could hear little Koah crying,” Koon recalled. He said the discovery immediately turned into a race to get the child out.
Koah was buried beneath the dirt inside what the sheriff described as a dog crate. The baby had also been wrapped in a towel.
Koon said the covering may have provided enough air to keep him alive.
The sheriff described hearing Koah cry as “the most joyful sound you ever heard of a crying baby, much like when your children were born.”
Investigators believe the child may have spent roughly 24 hours underground based on what they learned about Comer’s movements.
“Certainly, God is good,” Koon said. Koah was taken to a hospital for treatment. The sheriff said authorities hoped the boy would make a full recovery and eventually have little memory of what happened.
“We want to thank everybody and just celebrate the fact today that an 11-month-old baby is alive,” Koon added.
Comer was initially arrested Monday night on burglary and resisting arrest charges. By Wednesday, the Lexington County Sheriff’s Office said arrest warrants also charged him with attempted murder, unlawful conduct toward a child, custodial interference and burglary.
Court and state records cited by WIS-TV show Comer had been placed on probation just over a month earlier after pleading guilty to aggravated breach of peace. The station also reported previous arrests this year involving domestic violence and a weapons-related charge.
In October, workers at a Georgia Jiffy Lube found themselves protecting another infant after a woman allegedly left her baby girl at the business and later returned carrying a knife.
Assistant manager Jarayya Mayes had just started a Saturday shift at the Cobb County shop when a woman she had previously noticed walking nearby approached the service bay with a stroller. Mayes said they had never spoken before.
The woman showed Mayes and coworker Elijah the infant, repeatedly asking whether they thought the baby was cute.
She then asked the employees to watch the child while she went to take care of something.
Before walking away, the woman left the stroller and a bag behind and told the workers that paperwork was inside.
“She just kept saying, ‘The paperwork is in the bag. You guys can just have her if I don’t make it back,’” Mayes recalled. “Once she said that, red flags immediately.”
Mayes called 911. While checking on the infant, she discovered the child was wearing a soaked diaper and had rashes on her neck and body.
About 15 minutes later, while Mayes was still speaking with dispatchers, the mother allegedly returned to the shop carrying a knife and demanded the baby back.
“Where’s the baby? I need the baby. I gotta go, I gotta go. Some stuff just went down. I gotta go,” Mayes recalled the woman saying.
Dispatchers instructed the workers not to allow her to leave with the child. Police arrived soon afterward.
Officers arrested 35-year-old Laraven Davis on child abandonment and reckless conduct charges. Paramedics took the baby to a hospital for a medical evaluation.
WSB-TV reported that Davis was later granted a $4,000 bond on the misdemeanor charges.
Police have not disclosed what prompted her actions or where the infant will be placed after receiving medical clearance.
Mayes said her reaction was immediate once the baby was left behind.
“As a mom, it broke me down, I did cry a lot,” she told WAGA-TV. “I was just a mom looking out for another kid. I just, I couldn’t let that baby go like that. That was heartbreaking.”
