Baby Found Alive After Being Buried in Dog Crate for 24 Hours, South Carolina Police Say

An 11-month-old boy was found alive on Tuesday after being buried in a dog crate for approximately 24 hours in the woods of Lexington County, South Carolina.

Authorities discovered the infant, Koah Sharpe, after a search party noticed freshly disturbed earth about 50 yards from the home of the child’s paternal grandfather, according to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department. Koah, described as a 20-pound infant with reddish hair, was found at about 1:30 p.m. inside the two-foot-by-two-foot wire crate, which had been wrapped in a towel and buried in a shallow hole.

The discovery ended an expansive search that involved roughly 100 emergency responders, including the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Sheriff Jay Koon described the moment searchers began to clear the dirt.

“As they probed it and laid it out and started digging, you could hear little Koah crying. So as you can imagine the race was on, everybody was down there trying to get him out,” said Sheriff Koon at a news conference.

Koah had been in the care of his father, 25-year-old Michael Comer, on Monday morning. The infant’s grandmother, Patricia Comer, said she had been supervising the child before leaving for work, expecting another caregiver to arrive shortly after. Koah had been in the care of his grandmother, which the sheriff said “happens quite often.” When that caregiver reached the home, both the father and the baby were gone.

The child’s mother, Dezarae Sharp, said Comer had been allowed weekend visits following his participation in therapy and a period of sobriety. The grandmother said that there was no formal custody agreement preventing Michael Comer from being alone with his son, as he had provided unsupervised care previously without incident.

After a friend stopped by the home at 11 a.m. Monday to drop off formula and received no answer, Patricia Comer grew concerned. “I don’t know what it was,” she said of her decision to leave work. She went home and, “sure enough, Michael had left,” she said.

The survival of the infant

Sheriff Koon said that the towel likely created an air pocket, which, combined with the cool weather, may have allowed the infant to survive the 24-hour burial.

“Certainly God is good. Just a few moments ago, we found little Koah, 11 months old, buried alive, clinging to life, crying – the most joyful sound you ever heard of a crying baby,” said Koon.

The child was transported to a hospital for medical evaluation. While authorities expressed optimism about his recovery, the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the burial continues. “We want to thank everybody and celebrate the fact today that an 11-month-old baby is alive,” said Koon.

Legal status of the father

The baby was not with him at the time of the arrest. He was also booked on a charge of resisting arrest. The sheriff’s office is coordinating with prosecutors to determine additional charges related to the incident. It remains unclear at this time whether Comer has retained legal counsel to speak on his behalf.

Lexington county south carolina vsb — Photo: nbcnews.com

The search for the baby reached a critical point when deputies found the grandfather’s home with doors left open and the child’s belongings inside, but no sign of the father or the infant.

Investigators later discovered video footage of the father in the Batesburg-Leesville area without the child, prompting the concentrated search of the surrounding woods. Police believed Comer, who was not known to have a car, had been hitchhiking between locations.