A 4-year-old Torrance boy who went missing for nearly 24 hours near Huntington Lake in Fresno County was found by rescue crews tired and hungry, but otherwise unharmed Friday morning, June 21, authorities said.
The parents of Christian Ramirez had been staying at the Rancheria Campground when they called the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office at 11 a.m. Thursday to report their son missing, Fresno County sheriff’s officials said.
The boy and his family are from Torrance, authorities said.
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The parents had searched for the boy for about an hour before calling authorities, prompting a response that included a search and rescue team, an air support unit, Forest Service rangers and California Fish & Wildlife officers to search near the northeastern corner Huntington Lake, in the Sierra National Forest and about 65 miles northeast of Fresno, officials said.
“In a matter of less than five minutes, he just disappeared,” Fresno County Sheriff’s Lt. Brandon Pursell told ABC 30, a Fresno station.
The boy was found by a Tulare County Search and Rescue team about 8 a.m. Friday nestled under a tree about a quarter-mile away from where he was last seen, officials said. The boy was given a sandwich and carried out to be reunited with his parents.
Searchers called out for the boy in the morning and he called back, Pursell told the station.
“This was an amazing show of teamwork and dedication,” the Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook. “There were more than 50 deputies and volunteers who combined to participate in this search.”
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Members of the community also offered to help in the search, officials said.
Video posted by the Sheriff’s Office showed a man carrying the boy, draped in a black jacket and snacking on the sandwich, along a trail out to awaiting vehicles and later to his awaiting parents.
Pursell told reporters that the area is known for having bears, snakes, waterways and “slip and fall” hazards and that it was fortunate Christian was found unharmed.
“There’s a lot of things that could have gone really, really wrong with this one,” he told reporters. “We got lucky, the family got lucky.”