A four-year-old autistic boy missing in the Alabama woods for more than three days was miraculously found by a Good Samaritan who believed that he was sent by God to save the youngster.
Phenix Wilkerson was reported missing about 12.30pm on Friday in the area of Sid Bush Road in the small town of Clayton in Barbour County, located in southeast Alabama.
The red-headed, hazel-eyed boy – wearing no shoes and only a tee shirt and sweatpants – wandered away from his family’s camper when his mother, Shyanne Ray, went to visit family nearby and discovered her son had vanished when she returned, AL.com reported.
Search crews and volunteers facing inclement weather conditions went searching for the boy, who is non-verbal. Around 3.15pm Sunday, nearly 50 hours after the boy had first gone missing, Good Samaritan Markeith Williams found little Phenix in the woods.
‘God sent me to do that,’ Williams said.
Phenix Wilkerson, 4, was reported missing about 12.30pm on Friday in the area of Sid Bush Road in the small town of Clayton in Barbour County, located in southeast Alabama
Williams, who joined the search with other volunteers, said he was searching for the boy in a different direction than the other crews were looking in.
‘I had my auntie, she’s an evangelist, pray for me before we left,’ he said, according to AL.com, ‘because I said it wasn’t going to work if she didn’t.’
The volunteers started to venture into the woods, but about two miles in people started to go in their own directions, the 25-year-old mechanic said.
Williams, who was looking for the boy with his wife, said he was about 60 feet away when he spotted him.
‘I went and hollered and everyone ran over,’ he recalled.
‘He was just looking scared, and he went to cry, but when he seen we weren’t going to hurt him.’
Williams said while the boy was barefoot, he still had on the same clothes he wore when he went missing Friday.
‘Everybody just took off running to where he was,’ Williams recalled, according to the news outlet.
Search crews and volunteers facing inclement weather conditions went searching for the boy, who is non-verbal. Around 3.15pm Sunday, nearly 50 hours after Phenix had first gone missing, Good Samaritan Markeith Williams found him in the woods
Phenix during the rescue was held by law enforcement officers who wrapped him in a warm blanket and carried him out of the woods
Barbour County Sheriff Tyrone Smith said he almost gave up hope that little Phenix would not be found until the miracle happened.
Once Phenix was located, one of the officers picked him up and held him close.
A volunteer placed a warm coat and blanket on him, as another placed socks over his bare feet.
The boy, who was given water, appeared calm as one of the searchers held his hand.
One of the officers carried Phenix to the top of the hill where he where he was placed in an ATV and driven to an ambulance that was waiting, as per AL.com.
Sargent Jeremy Burkett, a spokesperson for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, said the boy had encountered a night of rain and two nights of freezing temperatures, but appeared ‘in good physical health.
Paramedics flew him to a nearby hospital for evaluation.
‘I wouldn’t want to speculate one way or the other about any potential charges,’ Burkett said, adding the investigation is ongoing.
Williams told the news outlet, as he smiled from ear to ear, that he was ‘thankful he could be part of the happy ending.’