DRESDEN – A massive search for a missing boy ended Thursday when he was found cold and wet, but otherwise safe, near the Eastern River after spending a night in the woods.

Micah Thomas, 12, disappeared after getting off the school bus Wednesday afternoon. He was found nearly 24 hours later by Tim Nason, a resident who said he was searching near his home on Alexander Road. He found the boy sitting in the woods, in bare feet and unable to walk.

Additional Photos

Marine Patrol Officer Donaldson Boord carries 12-year-old Micah Thomas from a boat on the Eastern River in Dresden to an ambulance after a searcher discovered the boy in the woods near the river Thursday afternoon. Andy Molloy/Morning Sentinel

Sgt. Mark Warren of the Maine Warden Service said Thomas was taken by a Marine Patrol boat to the east side of the river, where he was reunited with his parents briefly and then taken by ambulance to be treated for exposure. He showed signs of hypothermia when he was rescued.

“He was cold and wet, but he’s in good condition,” Warren said.

Thomas got off the bus around 3 p.m. Wednesday at the intersection of Eagle Lodge Lane and Route 127, authorities say. He was seen an hour later on East Pittston Road, a dead-end road a few miles from where he was dropped off.

The warden service led the search, which included roughly 50 people from law enforcement and civilian search agencies using dogs, airboats, ground searchers, a helicopter and an airplane. Overnight temperatures dropped to about 25 degrees.

Much of the search focused on the east side of the Eastern River, but Lt. Kevin Adam of the warden service said Thomas crossed over to the west shore sometime during the night.

The boy said that he did not hear searchers or airplanes until Thursday morning, Adam said. The boy said he hollered in hopes of attracting attention.

Nason, who was searching independently of the organized search, said in an email Thursday that he heard someone yelling and found Thomas sitting in the middle of a swampy area between the woods and the river.

“He was wearing only a blue sweat shirt with a hood, his bare feet (were) blue and numb with cold,” Nason said. “He had been out all night and told me he didn’t think he would have survived another night.”

Kennebec Journal Staff Writer Craig Crosby can be contacted at 621-5642 or at:

ccrosby@centralmaine.com

Related Stories