3-Year-Old Boy Found 'Alive and in Good Health' After Surviving Montana Wilderness Alone for 2 Days

Ryker Webb.Photo: Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office - Montana/Facebook

A 3-year-old boy has been found “alive and in good health” after going missing for two days near home in Montana, according to authorities.

Ryker Webb “was in good spirits and apparently healthy” when he was found Sunday on Pine Ridge Road off South Fork Bull River Road in Sanders County, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in anews releasethat day.

The boy had been last seen Friday while “playing with the family dog in the yard outside the home” on the east side of Bull Lake near the 18 mile-marker on Highway 56, according to apost on the department’s Facebook pageafter little Ryker was reported missing.

Although authorities initially said he was 4, Lincoln County Sheriff Darren Short toldTodayhe is actually 3.

Ryker Webb.Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office - Montana/Facebook

The LCSO was alerted to Webb’s disappearance just before 5 p.m. on Friday when “a concerned neighbor” reported “a possible missing child in the Bull Lake area, according to Sunday’s news release, shared on Facebook.

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Webb “had already been missing for more than 2 hours” when LCSO deputies and David Thompson Search and Rescue responded to the report, the sheriff’s office said.

Neighbors were issued a Code Red Alert and asked to “search their own properties and structures” for the missing boy.

More than 50 people “were actively searching” for Webb when officials were told that he had possibly been spotted, per Sunday’s release.

Search crews also utilized all-terrain vehicles, “several drones and dog teams” and “a boat unit on the lake” as they looked for Webb, they said. Two Montana Air National Guard helicopters and drones from Flathead County and Spokane Police joined the search on Saturday.

But adverse weather conditions complicated the search from the start, according to the sheriff’s office.

“It was extremely difficult to get the additional air assets into the Bull Lake valley due to very poor weather conditions which consisted of rain, low visibility, and low ceiling,” the department said on Sunday.

Additionally, “dense vegetation” made the area “extremely difficult to search” the area, the LCSO said.

The LCSO thanked more than a dozen agencies “and the large group of experienced outdoorsmen and families who responded from Sanders County” for assisting in the search for Webb.

The sheriff’s office also thanked the Halfway House, Stillwater Christian Church, Rosauers “and many others” for providing “meals and support” while Webb was missing.

source: people.com