Maine Game Wardens Help Rescue 2-Year-Old That Wandered Away from Campsite

A very scary moment for the parents of a two-year-old turned out all okay in the end thanks to Maine Game Wardens and search parties.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife posted on their Facebook page on Thursday that the toddler had wandered off from the families campsites at Jo Mary Lake Campground in Northeast Piscataquis around 2 a.m. Thursday morning. She apparently woke up and opened the camper door and went walking off.

She was discovered missing at 7 a.m. when the parents woke up and called 911, and a large search was conducted by just about several organizations including Maine Game Wardens, the Piscataquis County Sheriff's Office, Maine Forest Rangers, the Maine State Police and Maine Marine Patrol officers. Planes, helicopters and a drone were launched and an intense search was conducted on the ground by search parties in an effort to locate the missing girl.

It was Game Warden Tyler Leach who found her at 10:45 when searching through one of the camp parking areas where there were some boat trailers and ice shacks stored. There she was around the back of an ice shack over a stone wall sitting on top of a brush pile wearing her pajamas and holding her blanket.

Warden Leach comforted her and reached out with his arms and she let him pick her up and carry her back to the campground back into the arms of her worried parents. After almost 9 hours out in the woods alone, most of it at night, she was examined and they found she was perfectly fine and didn't need any medical attention.

The parents were relieved and of course extremely thankful for the large effort that was that the Maine Warden Service and other first responders put in to locate their lost child and reunite her with them.