‘They’ve found our baby’: Mom’s joy as B.C. girl’s rescue plays out on social media

The mother of a six-year-old girl who went missing for three days in north-central British Columbia has described her joy at their reunion, which played out on social media videos.

Footage shared on Sunday night by a Facebook group devoted to the search for the girl shows mother Gail Skin rushing into the forest to meet rescuers, then emerging with her daughter wrapped in blankets, to the applause of other responders.

Burns Lake RCMP say the girl, who is on the autism spectrum and non-verbal, was found on Sunday around 6 p.m.

Skin later posted a Facebook Live video to thank rescuers for finding her “baby girl.”

She says her daughter was found in “tough terrain” a couple of kilometres from their house in a small community not far from Burns Lake.

The girl went missing on Thursday and fears for her safety had been growing as temperatures dipped below 10 Celsius overnight in the area.

“My baby was found and brought back to me. Brought back to me and her daddy,” Skin says in the Facebook Live video, showing her daughter in the back of an ambulance.

Police say the girl was found in a forested area that had already been searched between her home and the First Nation band office.

They say searchers believe the girl was likely moving around while she was missing, so she may not have been in the area when it was first searched.

Skin describes how a police officer phoned her to say her daughter had been located, to the disbelief of relatives.

“No, I’m serious, they’ve found her…They’ve found our baby, they’re bringing her to us,” Skin says she told them.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2024.

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press