Town Is Horrified After 2-Year-Old Boy Vanished - Then County Judge Remembers His Deserted Childhood Home

Jan 10, 2019 by apost team

Most two-year-olds can't travel very far on their own. A good chunk of all two-year-olds can't even walk for more than a few seconds at a time. Despite these facts of life, a toddler went missing in Forsyth County, Georgia in late 2018, managing to stay hidden from his parents, the entire Forsyth County police squad, and every single firefighter employed by Forsyth County, Georgia. Fortunately, the search and rescue team eventually found the toddler, but you'll never guess where he was hiding out the entire time. 

The adventurous two-year-old's parents first realized that the child was missing after being unable to find him in their home. They believed the toddler opened the unlocked back door, went outside, and managed to get lost somewhere in Forsyth County.

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As soon as the parents had trouble finding their son, they phoned the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office. After a pair of deputies couldn't locate the toddler, they ordered police officers and firefighters to fan out in a two-mile-wide circle with the boy's home as the circle's center.

The 50-odd-deep rescue team searched harder and harder as the afternoon hours burned into evening hours. Eventually, the sunset came and dipped below the horizon. Even though the first responders had been searching for hours, they had not yet been successful in finding the runaway two-year-old.

This was when the sheriff pulled out the big guns. You're obviously familiar with the phone number 9-1-1, which is used across the United States for emergencies. Authorities who are high enough on the chain of command have the ability to perform what's called a reverse 911 alert. A reverse 911 alert consists of law enforcement authorities reaching out to all mobile phones and landlines in their immediate area.

In this case, those authorities urged nearby residents to go outside and comb their yards for the runaway toddler. 

A Forsyth County judge, Phillip Bettis, answered the reverse 911 alert and began combing around his property. Although Bettis couldn't find any toddlers on his own property, he figured that the boy could be tucked away in an abandoned house across the street.

The toddler was found floating face-up in a solid-green pool behind the abandoned house. Have you ever lost sight of your children? We would love to hear your story in the comments. Pass it along to others so they can also read the story of how the miraculous gut feeling of the Judge saved the boy.