12-hours of searching, and a giggle, lead to lost boy being found

Keeley Moat said it only took about five minutes at dinner with family on Monday night for her two-year-old son to slip away and her to realize he wasn’t there, and it would be another 12 hours until she was able to see him again.

“Right away (we) kind of started to panic and look everywhere for him. And it’s not a very big property so it didn’t take too long to search at all, and realize that he wasn’t anywhere to be found,” explained Moat.

She and her son were visiting family in the Aneroid area, south of Swift Current. They were at a farm having supper and visiting with family.

Moat called the realization that her son, Courtland, wasn’t there scary, “to say the least”.

She said she kept searching the property and her aunt called the RCMP. Officers arrived and started to co-ordinate a bigger search including officers, police dogs, a drone, and a STARS helicopter.

Moat said a friend of her aunt’s also had a plane they used to search.

Moat said they were searching all night, and people kept showing up to help but as the numbers grew she said it made her feel a bit uneasy because there were so many people but they still weren’t finding him.

“It was nice to see the people come, but,” she laughed. “It was still a hard feeling to know that nobody had found him.”

Search and find

Bailee Switzer and her boyfriend were two of those who went to the farm to help look for the boy. She doesn’t know Moat’s family, but said they heard that some people needed help.

“So we just decided to saddle up and go,” said Switzer.

The two of them brought their horses and were sent with another woman to search east of the farmhouse.

It was about an hour later that Switzer and her group actually managed to find the boy, in a grassy, boggy area just about a kilometre from the house.

“We heard what I think was a giggle, and looked down, and could see blonde hair of the little boy sticking up above the grass,” said Switzer.

“My boyfriend jumped off his horse and scooped him up, and we started shouting and letting people know that we found him, and then we walked him out to the road and back towards the farm.”

Switzer said he wasn’t crying or anything, he was just asking where his mom was and talking about the horses.

This was about 8 on Tuesday morning.

“I honestly didn’t know what to think,” said Moat about when she heard the shouts that he’d been found.

“I was so worried kinda what state we were going to find him in because we hadn’t heard anything from him all night, especially when we were searching in that area.”

Afterward

Moat said the boy was missing his pampers and his shoes when he was found. He had a bit of a sunburn, a few scratches and bug bites, but they took him to the hospital and he’s going to be okay.

She said she thinks he just went out on a bit of an adventure, then got a little lost and turned around.

Moat thanked everyone who came out to help. She said there were a lot of mosquitoes, the crops were hard to get through, and people taking time out to do that for them means a lot.

Switzer called the search and finding the boy unbelievable.

“It was just a total effort (from) everyone. We weren’t there the longest, or whatever, but we just happened to be the ones that found him. I’m glad it had a happy ending,” said Switzer.

Moat said she might be holding onto Courtland a little tighter for the next little while.

“Definitely put a leash on him or tie another kid to him so that we don’t have to worry about it,” she joked.