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Friday, July 17, 2009
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Scary ordeal, happy ending 2-year-old was lost in woods until one of the searchers came out of the woods with the boy in his arms Associate Editor Dave LeDoux ended a tension-filled hour for a rural Brainerd family Thursday morning as he walked out of the woods behind Crow Wing Cabinets carrying 2-year-old Sebastian Kurtenbach.
The toddler who lives just west of the Highway 371 business left his home around 8:30 a.m. while his mother, Rachel Frimood, was in the bathroom. He was wearing a blue and yellow zip-up top and navy blue pants and was shoeless.
At first, Frimood said she thought her son had just stepped out into the yard to play with a toy. She said he had never ventured into the thick woods that surround their home unless he was with his sister or his parents were outside.
"I searched the wood lines," she said while calling his name. "I was walking the woods."
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Sebastian Kurtenbach, 2, was hugged by his grandmother after being found. Other than a few scratches and some small bumps, Sebastian appeared fine.
Brainerd Dispatch/Heidi Lake
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She called her husband, who was working in Crosslake, and enlisted her mother-in-law, who had stopped by, in her search. About 30 or 40 minutes after he was initially missing, at about 9 a.m., law enforcement was called.
When the owners of Crow Wing Cabinets learned a neighbor boy was missing, they locked their doors and employees and the owners began searching the woods behind their business. There were about seven employees, including LeDoux, and two owners involved in the search.
Officials at the nearby Power Lodge volunteered the use of recreational vehicles for the search and also dispatched employees to help look for Sebastian. Jim Meister, service manager at Power Lodge, said he and another employee searched their grounds, including pontoon boats the missing child could have crawled aboard.
Sandy Beyer, who along with her husband, Dave, owns Crow Wing Cabinets, had employees immediately search around the outside of their building and eventually the owners and employees went into the woods.
LeDoux, 58, said he noticed a child's footprint in a dried-up mud puddle in the woods. He was about two blocks from the child's home and about 50 yards from a nearby road. It was there he found Sebastian, who was lying in the tall grass.
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Crow Wing County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Chad Paulson met Dave LeDoux and 2-year-old Sebastian Kurtenbach as they emerged from the woods where the toddler was found. LeDoux, a Crow Wing Cabinets employee, said he found Sebastian lying in tall grass about two blocks from the child's home. Brainerd Dispatch/Heidi Lake
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"Let's go find your mom," the grandfather of a 2- and 3-year-old said to the lost boy.
"Uh huh," was the boy's only response.
He carried the boy out of the woods at about 9:30 a.m. and the search was over. LeDoux said the woods were thick with many dead limbs and branches.
He handed the boy over to Crow Wing County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Chad Paulson who turned him over to a relieved and exhausted mother.
Paulson told the boy that he wasn't in trouble but that he had worried his parents.
Frimood and her son went inside an ambulance where he was checked over. Frimood said that other than a few scratches and some small bumps that were possibly from bee stings or a reaction to some plants, her son appeared fine.
Sebastian's stepfather, Jerry Frimood, left his Crosslake work site and was able to thank LeDoux for finding the boy.
"I'm so happy," he said.
The boy was found in a wooded area west of Highway 371 and south of the Gull Lake Dam Road.
Crow Wing County Sheriff Todd Dahl advised the public to always keep a watchful eye on children and grandchildren.
"They have a tendency to disappear in seconds and can gravitate toward water," he said. "We really our fortunate in this instance, as it could have ended tragically."
Responding to the search site were the Crow Wing County Sheriff's Department; police departments from Brainerd, Baxter, Pequot Lakes and Nisswa; the State Patrol; the DNR; North Ambulance; and the Brainerd Fire Department.
MIKE O'ROURKE may be reached at mike.orourke@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5860.
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