South Carolina 11-Month-Old Found Alive After About 24 Hours Buried in a Dog Crate: Sheriff Says a Towel Likely Formed an Air Pocket
The Lexington County Sheriff's Department in South Carolina said on November 10 that 11-month-old Koah Sharpe was found alive after being buried underground for about 24 hours. Sheriff Jay Koon said the baby had been placed in a wire dog crate about two feet by two feet, wrapped in a towel, and buried under roughly a foot of dirt in woods about 50 yards from his paternal grandfather's home.
According to the sheriff's department, the baby's father, 25-year-old Michael Comer, took him at about 11 a.m. on November 9 while the paternal grandmother was running an errand and another caregiver was on the way. About 100 searchers joined the search; at about 1:30 p.m. on November 10, searchers noticed freshly disturbed dirt and heard crying. The baby was pulled out, in the sheriff's words, 'screaming at the top of his lungs.'
Koon said the towel wrapped around the crate likely created an air pocket that let the baby breathe for nearly 24 hours underground. The baby was rushed to hospital, described as 'clinging to life,' but is expected to make a full recovery.
Comer was arrested on the night of November 9 in an outbuilding in Batesburg-Leesville and charged at that stage with burglary and resisting arrest. The sheriff's department said additional charges relating to the burial were still being determined with prosecutors.
Source: Lexington County Sheriff's Department
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 南卡罗来纳州Lexington县法院（资料图）。图：RHightower，CC BY-SA 3.0，经维基共享资源 / Lexington County Courthouse, South Carolina (file photo). Photo by RHightower, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
