Koah Sharpe was believed to have been underground for 24 hours after disappearing with his 25-year-old father. Nearly 100 rescuers found him after hearing his cries beneath freshly disturbed soil in a wooded area

A faint cry beneath the earth led rescuers to an 11-month-old boy buried inside a dog crate in a South Carolina woodland. Wrapped in a towel and covered with a shallow layer of soil, Koah Sharpe was found on Tuesday in critical condition after what authorities believe was nearly 24 hours underground. The child is now hospitalized, and investigators hope he will make a full recovery.

The discovery came during a large-scale search involving nearly 100 rescuers, after the boy disappeared with his 25-year-old father, Michael Comer. According to Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon, the search team was combing an area of woods near the father’s home when officers noticed a patch of earth that appeared to have been recently disturbed.

The spot was about 50 yards into the woodland. As rescuers began probing the ground and digging, they heard something that changed the course of the operation: Koah was crying beneath the soil.

“As they were probing the ground, moving the dirt and beginning to dig, they could hear little Koah crying,” Koon said. He described the rescue as a race against time, with everyone rushing to reach the child as quickly as possible.

Koah was inside a dog crate, wrapped in a towel and buried beneath the ground. The sheriff believes the towel may have helped create a small air pocket, allowing the infant to survive until rescuers reached him.

Koon described the sound of the child’s cries as “the most joyful sound you could ever hear from a crying baby.” When he was found, however, the boy was in a life-threatening condition. He was taken to hospital, where he remains under medical care.

The search had begun on Monday afternoon, after the child’s mother reported that both Koah and Comer had disappeared. The boy had been left with his father at the mother’s home while she went out to run an errand. When another person who had been asked to care for the infant arrived, neither the father nor the child was there.

Lexington County deputies located Comer late Monday in the Batesburg-Leesville area. The child, however, was still missing, prompting authorities to organize an extensive search involving nearly 100 people.

Based on what investigators have learned about the father’s movements, authorities believe Koah had been buried for approximately 24 hours before he was discovered. The precise circumstances surrounding the incident remain under investigation.

Sheriff Koon said he hoped the infant would recover completely. He also expressed the hope that, given his age, Koah would retain little memory of what happened.

“We hope that at 11 months old, as he grows up, he won’t remember much of this, but that he’ll simply have a great and inspiring story to tell,” Koon said.

(Photo: © AndKronos)