‘I lost my mum’: 3-year-old boy tells rescuer
‘‘He’d fallen down a bank. He said he was trying to find his mum.’’
Shinae Twist family friend
The first thing Tolaga Bay 3-year-old Axle said to the man who found him 21 hours after the toddler went missing from his home was ‘‘I lost my mum’’.
Peter Hughes was one of more than 300 people who were searching for the little boy after he disappeared from his family home, in the small town, north of Gisborne, around 1pm on Tuesday.
He had been scouring the riverbank yesterday morning, before deciding to head up a forestry track, several kilometres from Axle’s home, where he heard a child’s voice and then spotted the toddler, about 10.45am.
‘‘He came out of the grass, little blonde hair and blue gumboots. He was crying and kept saying ‘I lost my mum.’ I said ‘well bro I found your mum, so you come with me, and I’ll take you to your mum’,’’ Hughes said.
When Hughes reunited Axle with his family ‘‘my heart came to my stomach and tears came to my eyes’’. ‘‘This little man is the real hero,’’ he said.
Axle’s father, who did not want to be named saying he was a private man, said Axle’s disappearance had been a ‘‘pretty scary’’ experience and at times he had feared the worst.
‘‘I didn’t think it was going to be a good ending. There was more than 300 people searching in the end – people were checking the rivers. He said he was sleeping with the rabbits.’’
Axle’s older brother Harry was among those who were out looking for the toddler. ‘‘I just couldn’t eat knowing he was out there.’’
A close family friend, Shinae Twist, said Axle’s mother was ecstatic her son had been found. ‘‘It’s been the worst 24 hours of her life. He’d fallen down a bank. He said he was trying to find his mum.’’
Overnight, Tolaga Bay residents left teddybears and blankets at their front doors, trying to entice Axle out of the dark.
About 50 volunteers searched through the night on Tuesday. He went missing with the family’s small white dog, Bro, who was found on Tuesday.
Yesterday morning, Tolaga Bay resident Lisa Riki said there was an influx of volunteers from Gisborne and many locals were opting to search instead of going to work. ‘‘Our community’s pretty empty this morning. Everybody’s out searching,’’ Riki said.