August 20, 2014 - 9:25 AM
PELICAN NARROWS, Sask. - The rescuers of a Saskatchewan toddler who was missing for almost a day say they had only been searching for about 15 minutes when they found him.
Jeffrey Custer and Kenny Canada got the call to help Sunday afternoon after Pelican Narrows RCMP were alerted to the two-year-old's disappearance.
Custer, who is 24, and 17-year-old Canada say they were in an area known as the "ski hill" about a kilometre from the community school.
The sound of crying led them into the bush, where they found the toddler wearing only a T-shirt and covered in bug bites.
The boy was thirsty, but in otherwise good health and he is now in the care of Social Services.
They say they walked less than a kilometre to his home and returned him to his family.
"We were standing there in the rocks and then we heard a baby crying. We checked and that was him," Canada recalled.
"I just picked him up and then we left from there and took him home," Custer said.
Canada said the family had a simple message for the rescuers.
"They said, 'Thank you.'"
RCMP are trying to find out who was caring for the child and why it took so long to report him missing.
"Obviously those are things we're going to check into," Cpl. Doug McLaren said Tuesday.
"We're lucky that they found him."
(CKBI, The Canadian Press)
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014