FLAT TOP, W.Va. — He spent a night in the woods with his loyal dog, but Henry Cox was unharmed when he was finally found just after 6 a.m. Friday.
“This turned out exactly how we wanted it to turn out,” said Mercer County Emergency Services Director Tim Farley. “We hate the child had to spent the night out in the cold, it was rather chilly, but evidently the dog stayed with him, they stayed warm enough, and the outcome was good.”
Henry went missing about 8:30 p.m. Thursday in the Flat Top area when his family went to tell him to come in and get ready for bed from playing in the yard. Although he’d been seen in the yard earlier, he was nowhere to be found. Family members and neighbors searched for nearly an hour before he was finally declared missing. Soon more than 100 volunteers with dogs, aircraft, and boats on the river were combing the local area for signs of him.
Ironically, some of the equipment involved in the search may have actually been a hindrance. Henry told the State Police after he was found he had heard the low flying helicopters, but they scared him, so he hid from them.
“He just hunkered down and didn’t come out,” said Farley. “They had searched the area where he was found pretty good, but all of the leaves had come out on the trees and they couldn’t see him.”
Farley said they learned the youngster had followed his dog into the woods and when it became dark he couldn’t find his way back out. So he and the dog bedded down for the night.
“The dog was with him,” said Farley. “He was okay. He was coming out of the woods when a neighbor spotted him and alerted the authorities.”