BELFAST (AP) – Scores of volunteers and law enforcement personnel searched the woods overnight before an Albion woman and her two young daughters were found in Palmero early Saturday, authorities said.

The girls’ father was taken into custody the night before and was being held at the county jail on two counts of burglary, according to a spokesman for the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department, and the mother was under observation at a local hospital, with similar charges pending.

Deputy Sheriff Merl Reed said the girls, 1 and 2 years old, had been taken to a hospital in Augusta for treatment after their ordeal.

The Maine Warden Service said Sean Anderson, 24, and Kristie Anderson, 25, of Albion made for the woods on Friday afternoon with their children.

The parents apparently were trying to avoid police and became separated from the children, according to Chief Deputy Bob Keating.

Authorities found Kristie Anderson at 8 a.m. on Saturday.

“But her kids were not with her,” said Lt. Patrick Dorian of the warden service. “Now we were faced with the difficulty of asking, Where are the kids?”‘

More than an hour later, a volunteer from Liberty heard a whimper that led him to the children, according to the Kennebec Journal.

“It was a heart-jump-in-your-throat kind of thing,” said Billy-Jo Sherman, 25. “I didn’t expect to find them.”

Dorian said the Andersons hid their pickup truck along Chisolm Pond Road on Friday afternoon and walked into the woods. He said as many as 150 volunteers and wardens searched through the night.

Dorian said Kristie Anderson was found about a mile from her children, and police suspect she had been away from the girls for at least several hours.

Asked Sunday if the children had been abandoned, Reed replied, “That we don’t know.”