Firefighters find missing Chester boy after 3-hour search

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Firefighters and police searched the woods of Smokeshire for nearly three hours this afternoon before finding a 9-year-old boy who had gone missing from his home earlier in the day.

The Chester Fire Department was called out around 2:30 p.m. to search for the boy. The boy’s family and neighbors had been looking for him since 1 p.m. Monday in the area around Baileys Mills Road and Lovers Lane.  Firefighters called for a search dog and cleared the area of people who could confuse the dog. A Vermont State Police K9 unit began a track, but lost the scent after a long search.

Chester Fire called for help from Rockingham, Springfield and Proctorsville at 4:12 p.m. and started a “grid search,” in which police and firefighters form a line and move slowly in patterns through an area. All the while the air was thick with mosquitoes and other flying insects. About an hour later, the boy was found about 500 yards — about a quarter of a mile — into the woods above his home.

In addition to the firefighters, one Springfield Police unit, four state troopers and two Chester police joined the search. In all, about 25 people were on hand to search while a Grafton Fire Department truck covered the Chester station.

Assistant Fire Chief Ben Whalen said the boy was in good shape aside from a “few bumps and bruises.” And, as a precaution, Chester Ambulance crew checked him out.