Late Thursday evening, September 20th, Curry County Sheriff, John Ward, received a call from Sheriff’s dispatch just after 10:00pm. The call from Sheriff’s dispatch was regarding a 911 call received from Tim Adams, reporting a missing three-year-old child.
Adams, stated that some friends of his had arrived from Medford to rent a residence off Old Coast Road, Gold Beach, and while unloading their car, the non-verbal autistic three-year-old girl had wandered off and they did not know where she was and that family members had been out searching the area for about ten minutes but had not located the girl.
Sheriff, John Ward responded from his residence requesting additional resources from the Gold Beach Police Department and the Oregon State Police.
Sheriff Ward also requested Dispatch to page out Search and Rescue after arriving at the residence finding family members walking up and down Old Coast Road which was picked up by the Brookings Police Department who overheard the radio traffic and offered the use of a drone with night vision.
With additional resources enroute, those already on scene began searching all the property and residences in the area and while searching around the area, more local residents joined in on the search on foot and in vehicles, expanding the search area.
Just over an hour after receiving the initial call from Dispatch, Sheriff Ward was advised that a local resident had heard something that sounded ‘strange to him’, just over a half mile south of the residence the little girl went missing from at about 11:18pm, but was unable to get to the location.
Sheriff Ward arrived to the area and began searching along the road and could hear whimpering coming from over an embankment in heavy blackberry brush and made his way down into the brush, locating the little girl entangled in the blackberry brush.
After freeing the little girl, Sheriff Ward and the girl made their way back to the roadway where we were given a ride back to the residence where she was reunited with her family.
Cal Ore Life Flight arrived upon request and determined besides the scratches, the little girl was alright, and remained with her family.
