The Long Fearful Search : "Alive And Well"

Katherine Leyton shared a photo on social media of her three-year-old son Jude recovering in a Kingston hospital, one day after he was found in a wooded area in South Frontenac. (Photo courtesy: Twitter/Kat_Leyton)

"The little guy lifted his head and kind of looked at us. We said, 'Listen, buddy. We're the police. We're here to help you. Don't be scared'. And we made sure he was warmed up, we gave him some water ... then got him out of there."

"I'll be honest ... The longer [a search] goes, the less likelihood of a positive outcome. So when it did happen... We were pretty excited."

"With the weather, it being a young child, although he was dressed moderately for the conditions, but, when you're dealing with a young child who is likely scared, the search urgency is very high."

"He was laying down on some grass, on his stomach, just laying down peacefully, [un]til Greg got up to him. When I picked him up, he was warm, he wasn't shivering, but he asked for water. That's about all he said. He wanted water."

"It's rocky [forested terrain], it's up and down, there are trails that lead out there, but for how long he stayed on the trail I don't know. He was found a little ways off a very faint trail."

Ontario Provincial Police Constable Scott McNames

 

"When the officers found Jude, he responded well, he was alert, he was responsive. He was well dressed for the weather. He had a winter jacket on with a heavy wool sweater. He still had his boots on. So he did well for the elements, and so that's one reason he was in such good shape, I believe."

"There was a lot of conversations with the family over the past few days by OPP members. While we were looking at the reality, we were also maintaining hope. [The parents] are absolutely ecstatic. I don't know how you describe that feeling."

"This is absolutely the best-case scenario that we could have hoped for. Lots of smiles, very happy time. The teams, both the OPP and the volunteer search and rescue members, when you work that hard for that long, man, it's a great feeling."

Constable Curtis Dick, OPP

The OPP says Jude Walter Leyton was last seen on Sunday, March 28 in South Frontenac. (Photo courtesy: Ontario Provincial Police)

How long? How long was the three-year-old child, a little boy big for his age, on his own in a heavily wooded forest with a geology common to northern Ontario with exposed limestone, hills, valleys, forest creeks and beaver ponds? Imagine a three-year-old on his own for close to four days. No food, no water, no guidance, no comforting, no direction, no understanding of why his world had so suddenly changed. Wondering where his parents were. Wondering why he was all alone. At three years of age would he understand that he was alone because he had of his own volition as a curious child, wandered off and away, far away from where safety and security was located?

 

Jude Walter Leyton wandered off The Bing Retreat, a fishing resort close to Fermoy, Ontario, some 40 km north of Kingston. It was 11:00 am. on Sunday. Hundreds of searchers since then, were engaged both day and night scouring thick woods around the 200-acre resort in South Frontenac off Canoe Lake Road. It wasn't until 3:20 p.m. the following Wednesday that OPP Constables Scott McNames, Greg Verney, Mike Ball and Peter Wrigglesworth found the child. "You don't see blue in nature like that", Constable McNames later recounted of his having spotted something blue while he was tying a flag to a tree.

Jude Walter Leyton had been lost wince about 11 a.m. Sunday. He was found alive and well on Wednesday. Photo by Handout /OPP

It could have been something that had been discarded and carried off by an animal, by a fierce burst of wind. And it could have been the blue jacket of a small child. The search team ran toward the area where that colour blue was spotted and there they found the missing child who had wandered from his family's fishing resort. Which had led the Ontario Search and Rescue Volunteer Association to take shifts with the searchers from the Ontario Provincial Police in a desperate race against time, the elements and the potential for an accident; barring that a child so deeply hidden in the woods might die of exposure, thirst and hunger.

A recovery marine unit, a canine unit and two helicopters of the OPP were all involved, along with emergency response unit members emanating from all over eastern Ontario. By the time Tuesday arrived, hope for the discovery of the whereabouts of the child became elusive and spirits were dampened. The four men who found Jude Walter Leyton a day later had been tasked to search a grid east of the resort. They found Jude close by a beaver pond where the child was lying on the ground, unmoving.

They gave the child asking for water little sips a a time, waiting intervals for him to ask for more, a child exhausted and bewildered at what had occurred to his young life. He had been found 982 metres' distant from  his family's retreat. The information that he had been found was relayed back to OPP headquarters, and swiftly to the child's parents. Through video connection the parents could see their little boy being carried to safety. According to an OPP spokesperson, there was not a dry eye to be seen at the Orillia headquarters detachment of the OPP.

Jude Walter Leyton, 3, is returned to his family on Wednesday after spending three and a half days lost in the woods of South Frontenac. Supplied photo