Toddler lost for 3 days in woods is found safe

After an extensive search, 3-year-old Christopher Ramirez of Plantersville was found alive Saturday morning, the Grimes County Sheriff ’s Office confirmed.

The toddler had vanished into the woods in Grimes County on Wednesday afternoon.

The saga had begun when Christopher disappeared while chasing a neighbor’s dog as his mother unloaded groceries at their home about 60 miles northwest of downtown Houston, authorities previously said. He was wearing a bright green shirt and Mickey Mouse shoes.

Christopher apparently covered plenty of ground. He was found at about 11:15 a.m. near the 7700 block of FM 1486 in a wooded area, Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell said. The site is about 6.5 miles away from the 1000 block of Deer Park Lane where Christopher first went missing.

Paramedics and Christopher’s mother went to meet him along a roadside near where he was found, Sowell said. He was taken to Texas Children’s Hospital in The Woodlands for evaluation after being found by a landowner, reported KTRK.

“He was smiling and drinking water,” Sowell said. “He was alive, laughing, cutting up, crying. His mother was crying.”

After Christopher’s family reported him missing Wednesday, the search expanded to over 150 people on Thursday and 100 on Friday. The effort was complicated by a lack of tips and rough terrain, according to local agencies and volunteer groups.

“In my 53 years of law enforcement, I’ve never seen (a search) this detailed, No. 1,” Sowell said at a Saturday news conference. “And No. 2, with hardly any facts to go on.”

Texas EquuSearch founder Tim Miller told KHOU the heavily forested area made the search “one of the most difficult” the volunteer group has ever helped conduct. The organization provides volunteers on horseback to canvass remote areas for missing people.

“We were running on prayers, four-wheel drive, and overdrive,” Sowell said. “Because we had nothing else — nothing else.”

Christopher