A 5-year-old boy was found safe after wandering from a Mission day camp on Tuesday (March 18).
According to a Mission RCMP news release, the boy walked away from a group playing hide-and-seek in a forested area near Stave Falls.
The boy’s parents and camp staff searched the area for roughly an hour but couldn't find him.
Mission RCMP was notified at about 12 p.m. and requested a large contingent of additional resources to aid in the search northwest of Hayward Lake. Mission Search and Rescue, the Integrated Police Dog Service, an RCMP helicopter, and the Integrated Emergency Response Team all joined the efforts to find the boy.
“Despite the challenges of the terrain and the dense forest, the RCMP helicopter crew spotted the child standing under a tree near a creek, almost a kilometre from where the child was last seen,” the news release reads.
Police say searchers quickly moved to the location and found the boy in “good spirits and uninjured”.
The detachment says it’s important to notify authorities as soon as someone goes missing.
“Even little legs can travel a surprisingly far distance in a short amount of time,” Mission RCMP Cpl. Harrison Mohr said in a news release.
“No one wants to have to report a child as missing, but it’s so important to do so as soon as you realize that you can’t find them – especially somewhere like this, where we had to be aware of potential hazards including the forest, a creek, and the nearby lake. The sooner we can start the search, the more we can narrow down the search area and focus our efforts. Every minute counts.”
