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Jan 04, 2024

Maine Game Wardens locate missing 2

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PISCATAQUIS COUNTY, Maine — Around 10:45 a.m. Thursday, Maine Game Wardens safely located a missing two-year-old girl who wandered away from her campsite during the early-morning hours Thursday.

The girl, who turned two years old in June, was last seen sleeping in her family's camper around 2 a.m. Thursday at the family's campsite at Jo Mary Lake Campground in Northeast Piscataquis, according to a release from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

When her family woke up around 7 a.m., they noticed the child was missing and the camper door was open.

"After a quick initial search, her family immediately called 911, and Game Wardens, Penobscot County Sheriff Officers, Maine Forest Rangers, Maine State Police, and Maine Marine Patrol officers all converged at the campground to search for the toddler," the release said. "The Maine Warden Service also had two warden service planes searching the area, as well as a Maine Forest Service helicopter and a Piscataquis Sherriff's Drone."

Game Wardens Tyler Leach and Nick Bartholomew conducted a "Hasty Search," an intense, quick search of the immediate area with multiple people, according to the release.

While Leach was searching through a camp parking area where there were boat trailers and ice shacks stored, the release said, "he went around one of the ice shacks to check it, he looked over the stonewall that bordered the lot, and saw [the girl] with her blanket dressed in flowered pajamas sitting on top of a brush pile at approximately 10:45 this morning."

The child then reached out her arms to Leach, allowing him to pick her up.

Leach then quickly made his way back to the campground and was met by her parents running towards him. She was examined and did not require medical treatment, officials said.

No additional information has been released.

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