A 4-year-old Harmony boy was found Wednesday afternoon after a five-hour search of the woods near his grandmother’s home. Members of the community helped officers and first responders look for the boy who was reported missing from the home on Foxhill Road. Courtesy of Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife
A 4-year-old boy from Harmony who was reported missing Wednesday morning was found several hours later safe and well, save a couple of bug bites and a missing shoe, officials say.
The child’s grandmother, Alicia Moulton, 43, called the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office to report her grandson missing just before 10 a.m. on Wednesday, according to Chief Deputy Mike Mitchell.
“The child was last seen out in the driveway playing,” Mitchell said Wednesday. “Grandma looks back a minute later, child’s gone.”
Moulton has full custody of her grandson and lives with him in a “very rural area” of Harmony on Foxhill Road, with a large wooded area behind the residence, Mitchell said.
Moulton’s report of a missing child drew a heavy response from law enforcement agencies including the sheriff’s office, the Maine Warden Service and Harmony’s fire department. The warden service typically deals with missing persons cases, Mitchell said, and sent as many as 15 wardens, an aircraft, a drone and five police dog units to Harmony to aid in the search for the boy.
About 20 residents from the town of Harmony also came out to the property to help, Mitchell said. The search area was the woods behind Moulton’s residence and any surrounding buildings.
“It was very good community support,” Mitchell said. “In a time of need, they showed up.”
Officers and residents combed the woods for nearly five hours. The search for the boy was made more urgent because of the “oppressive humidity” and heat in Somerset County on Wednesday, Mitchell said. Temperatures were in the high 80s throughout the day.
The child was found soon after his biological mother came out to the scene, Mitchell said. She had begun “hollering,” Mitchell said, calling her son’s name, and the boy responded. He began to walk in the direction of his mother’s voice back to the house, Mitchell said. Authorities found him emerging from the woods at around 2:30 p.m., about 200 yards from the residence.
Paramedics from Harmony’s ambulance service checked the child out at the scene and found he was perfectly fine, with only a few bug bites and a missing shoe to show for his hours in the woods, Mitchell said. The boy wasn’t even dehydrated despite the heat, he said.
“The kid was doing OK,” Mitchell said, “wasn’t crying or anything.”
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