Baby found ‘clinging to life’ after being buried in dog cage for 24 hours, South Carolina authorities say

A baby was found alive in South Carolina after apparently being buried in a dog cage for about 24 hours, authorities said Tuesday.

Eleven-month-old Koah Sharpe had been missing since Monday when he was taken by his father, Michael Comer, according to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department. Comer went to several locations in Lexington County, the sheriff said, citing investigators. He was arrested Monday evening on burglary charges by county deputies, but his son was not with him at the time.

Sharpe was inside the crate, wrapped in a towel, about 50 yards from the home owned by her grandfather, who is also Comer’s father, Sheriff Jay Koon said at a news conference. Search teams, involving nearly 100 law enforcement and public safety officers, had been scouring the area for the infant since he went missing. One group spotted what Koon described as a patch of “freshly turned over dirt” in a wooded area, Koon said.

As officers began digging, they could hear Sharpe crying, Koon said.

“So, as you imagine, the race was on. Everybody went down there to try to get him out,” the sheriff said.

Officers found Sharpe “clinging to life,” according to Koon, who called the infant’s cries “the happiest sound you’ve ever heard from a crying baby.”

The infant was immediately taken to the hospital for medical treatment.

Koon said Sharpe was released into the care of his grandmother, Patricia Comer, on Monday. Michael Comer stayed with the baby at her home while she went out to run errands, and by the time a scheduled caregiver arrived shortly after, Comer had left with his son.

CBS affiliate WLTX reported that when Patricia Comer learned the baby had been found, she jumped out of her car and screamed, “He’s alive!”

The investigation into what happened to Sharpe was still in its early stages when Koon spoke at Tuesday’s conference, and the sheriff said his department was working with the attorney’s office to determine what charges, if any, would be filed in the case.