WILTON – A cold and wet 2-year-old boy was found about three-quarters of a mile from his backyard less than an hour after he went missing Saturday morning, according to Cpl. Nate Bean of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department.
About a dozen emergency workers searched the woods behind Robyn Stevens’ house on Gammon Hill Road around 11:30 a.m. for her son, Devon Gleason, after a baby sitter reported the boy missing.
Toni Viles, who was watching Gleason while his mother was out of town, had left him playing in a sand pile behind the house to go inside for a moment, according to officer Terry Warren of the Wilton Police Department.
Searchers from Wilton and East Dixfield fire departments, NorthStar Ambulance, Wilton police and Cpl. Bean with his tracking dog, Ben, scoured the woods for about a 40 minutes when a neighbor reported seeing the boy though he would not come to her.
Bean and Ben were hot on Devon’s tracks, and Bean spotted a small footprint in the mud, Bean said. The woman grabbed Devon just as Bean and his dog arrived at her residence between Pond and Gammon Hill roads.
He was soaking wet and scared, Bean said. He had fallen into a stream twice, according to Warren’s report.
“Ben did a heck of a job,” Warren said of the dog. “It would have been extremely difficult without the dog. We wouldn’t have had a clue which way to go without him,” he said.
Devon was taken to Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington by ambulance, where he was examined and released, according to Warren.
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