4-Year-Old Girl, Missing in Woods for 48 Hours, Found Unharmed
“Elegant may not be the right word – it’s been extremely emotional,” Lee County, Ala., Sheriff Jay Jones said of the search for Evelyn Sides, better known as Vadie.
Rescuers carry 4-year-old Evelyn Sides, better known as Vadie, out of the woods in Lee County, Ala., on Friday. Aside from a few scratches and dehydration, she is in good condition, officials said.Credit…Clay Carson, via Associated Press
By Michael Levenson
Evelyn Sides, better known as Vadie, and her dog Lucy were playing in the backyard of a family friend’s house on Wednesday when they suddenly wandered into the deep Alabama woods. When a friend who was watching 4-year-old Vadie learned she was missing, she called 911.
Within hours, a search was organized that would eventually expand to include 400 volunteers, two helicopters and a K-9 search team. Together, they scoured the woods for Vadie, their fear growing as the night wore on with no sign of the girl or her dog.
On Thursday, they searched again, finding only what appeared to be a woman’s footprints in the woods but no sign of Vadie.
Then on Friday, volunteers walking along a county road heard a bark. It was Lucy. They ran toward the dog and there, sleeping in a piney valley was a three-foot, 40-pound girl with bright red hair.
Vadie was found, unharmed and in great spirits. She had been in the woods with Lucy for just over 48 hours. She was less than a mile from the home where she was last seen in Lee County, Ala., about 60 miles east of Montgomery.
“It was an amazing sight,” said Col. Edward D. Casey, commander of the Alabama Air National Guard’s 187th Fighter Wing, who was among the first volunteers to find Vadie. “She woke up, stood up and we saw it was her. It was so, so surreal and so amazing. And what’s more amazing is how calm she was.”
The volunteers gave Vadie orange Gatorade, and a bite of banana and a granola bar, he said.
“I thought after two nights alone in the woods, she would be shocked and confused and crying,” Col. Casey said, adding that instead, Vadie exclaimed, “Oh, I can’t wait to tell my mom about my two nights out.”
“She just kept talking, talking, talking,” he said.
Jay Jones, the Lee County sheriff, said that aside from a few scratches and dehydration, Vadie was in good condition.
“She made a couple of comments to the effect of, ‘Why are there so many people in the woods?’” he said.
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Sheriff Jones credited Vadie’s rescue with community members who came out in force, despite warnings to stay home during the coronavirus pandemic. The effort was also a reminder, he said, of how strong the community is, a year after a tornado hit the county, killing 23 people.
“The best part of this whole thing is seeing this kid with his parents again,” Sheriff Jones said. “Elegant may not be the right word. It’s very emotional.”
There was no answer Saturday to phone numbers listed for Vadie’s parents, Amanda and Stephen Sides. But Ms. Sides posted a message on Facebook thanking law enforcement officers and volunteers who helped find her daughter, along with a video of Vadie recounting her ordeal.
“To all the volunteers who came out in the midst of a global pandemic to walk through the woods, sometimes in the early hours of the morning, God bless you all,” Ms. Sides wrote. “We’ve been on an emotional roller coaster these past few days, and now I’m finally starting to breathe normally again.”
Ms. Sides said Vadie was recovering in a hospital on Saturday and “doing great.”
In the video, Vadie, wearing a yellow-print hospital johnny, recalled how she got away from her family friend, “Nanny.”
“We walked, but then I sped up and ran and got lost and then I started calling for Nanny, but Nanny was too far away,” Vadie said.
Later, he said, “I slid, slid down a very slippery waterfall” and walked to a house, but “I dared not go in.”
“I slept on a road the first night and the second night I slept where they found me,” he said.
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