GRIMES COUNTY, Texas — A 3-year-old Texas boy missing since Wednesday has been found alive and safe, authorities said Saturday.
According to the Grimes County Sheriff’s Office, Christopher Ramirez was found and reunited with his mother, KHOU reported.
The discovery was also confirmed by Tim Miller, founder and director of Texas EquuSearch, a search-and-rescue organization.
Miller said the boy was found by a landowner.
Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell said Ramirez was found around 11:45 a.m. CDT and was dehydrated, KTRK reported. The boy was taken to Texas Children’s Hospital to be evaluated, the television station reported.
“He’s found, he’s safe, he’s with his mother,” Sowell told KHOU. “He’s alive. He’s drinking a lot of water.”
Grimes County Judge Joe Fauth III told reporters that Ramirez had not crossed a major road and said the boy was probably three miles from home.
“In these dense woods, it’s a very long way,” Fauth said at a news conference. “Davy Crockett would have had a little trouble getting through that.”
Ramirez was at his Plantersville home Wednesday when he disappeared after chasing a neighbor’s dog into the nearby woods, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The boy’s mother, Araceli Nunez, originally feared her son had been abducted, the newspaper reported.
Finding Ramirez is a positive ending to nearly four days of frustration for the boy’s family and law enforcement officials.
Sowell estimated that about 150 law enforcement and search experts had searched for the boy, KBTX reported.
“At this moment, I have no leads to give you,” Sowell told reporters during a briefing with reporters on Friday. “... Unfortunately, I have to say it’s at a standstill right now.”
That gloom turned to jubilation on Saturday.
“How does it feel?” Fauth asked during Saturday’s news conference. “I made a crack yesterday, I said, ‘We’re gonna solve this by 2 o’clock on Saturday.
“Well, thank you, dear Lord,” Fauth said, looking at his watch. “We solved it two hours early, and we solved it with the happiest of endings that we could possibly come up with.”