孩子在距家不到1公里的地方被找到，发现他的时候，他安静地躺在地上，他可能走了不少路，第一个要求是喝水。
'You don't lose hope': How a lost little boy was found
The story of how searchers discovered Jude Walter Leyton after he had been lost in the woods of South Frontenac for three and a half days.
Author of the article:
Steph Crosier • Whig-Standard
Publishing date: Apr 02, 2021 • 18 hours ago • 4 minute read •
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OPP Const. Scott McNames carries Jude Leyton, 3, back to his family in South Frontenac while FaceTiming his parents on Wednesday. Jude had been missing in the thick forest for three and a half days. PHOTO BY HANDOUT PHOTO
KINGSTON — Ontario Provincial Police Const. Scott McNames was tying a flag to a tree on Wednesday at about 3:25 p.m. when he looked up and saw something blue.
“You don’t see blue in nature like that,” McNames said the next day.
So McNames and his team, comprising constables Greg Verney, Mike Ball and Peter Wrigglesworth, ran over to what turned out to be three-year-old Jude Walter Leyton, who had been missing in South Frontenac for about three and a half days.
A lot of expletives were expressed when they realized the boy was alive, McNames admitted.
“The little guy lifted his head and kind of looked at us,” McNames said. “We said, ‘Listen, buddy. We’re the police. We’re here to help you. Don’t be scared.’ And we made sure he was warmed up, we gave him some water … then got him out of there.”
McNames said his heart was pounding.
“You have no idea,” McNames said. “I’ll be honest … The longer (a search) goes, the less likelihood of a positive outcome. So when it did happen … Again, there were a lot words you’re not going to print … We were pretty excited.”
Jude wandered away from his family’s fishing resort, The Bing Retreat, on Sunday morning. For days, hundreds of searchers from the OPP and the Ontario Search and Rescue Volunteer Association took shifts, day and night, scouring thick woods on and surrounding the 200-acre resort on Canoe Lake Road, south of Fermoy.
McNames has been with the OPP for 25 years, 19 of them with the emergency response unit. He was celebrating his birthday with his children and family when he got the call. So, when cake and presents were over, he headed to Canoe Lake Road.
McNames said he didn’t know how much walking he did over the next three days, but he said some of his colleagues put upwards of 50 kilometres on their boots.
“The search urgency was very high,” McNames said. “With the weather, it being a young child, although he was dressed moderately for the conditions, but, when you’re dealing with a young child who is likely scared, the search urgency is very high.
“We put all available resources on it.”
In addition to emergency response unit members from all over eastern Ontario, members of the OPP search and recovery marine unit, canine unit and two OPP helicopters were brought in. Officers were joined by OPP-trained search and rescue volunteers from the Rideau Ground team and the Sauvetage Bénévole Outaouais-Ottawa team.
Jude Walter Leyton, 3, is returned to his family on Wednesday after spending three and a half days lost in the woods of South Frontenac. Supplied photo
By Tuesday, the realistic chance of a happy ending started to dwindle. McNames said he and his team stayed positive by thinking of their own families.
“We’re all fathers,” McNames said. “You can’t find them if you’re not looking, and you want the best outcome possible. It was definitely looking bleak, there’s no doubt about that, but you don’t lose hope … You just can’t give up.”
On Wednesday, the search managers happened to give McNames and his team a grid east of the resort to search further. When he spotted Jude near the beaver pond, the boy was lying on the ground, very still.
“He was laying down on some grass, on his stomach, just laying down peacefully, ’til Greg got up to him,” McNames said. “When I picked him up, he was warm, he wasn’t shivering, but he asked for water. That’s about all he said. He wanted water.”
To be careful, McNames said officers would give Jude little sips of water, wait until he asked again, and then give him more. McNames said Jude was more exhausted and bewildered than scared.
While it wasn’t surprising that Jude was tired after three and a half days alone in the forest, McNames said the three-foot-five boy had also made quite a trek. Where they found him was
982 metres from the family retreat as the crow flies.
“It’s rocky, it’s up and down, there are trails that lead out there, but for how long he stayed on the trail I don’t know. He was found a little ways off a very faint trail,” McNames said. “There’s swamps, there’s lakes … You can’t walk in a straight line from (the retreat). Who knows how much walking he did before he finally just laid down.
“It’s rough terrain. It’s incredible where he was.”
Search and rescue volunteers walk into the woods along Canoe Lake Road as the ground search for missing three year old Jude Walter Leyton who went missing last Sunday. PHOTO BY ELLIOT FERGUSON /Postmedia
McNames carried Jude all the way back to the retreat, where his parents met them before they arrived at the clearing around the lodges. Cheers and clapping erupted.
McNames said it could have been anyone who found Jude. His team just happened to be given the right search grid.
“It’s a total team effort from everyone involved,” McNames said. “When it comes together like this and there a positive result, it’s pretty gratifying.”
The story of how searchers discovered Jude Walter Leyton after he had been lost in the woods of South Frontenac for three and a half days.
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