Boy who vanished on Colorado camping trip found alive after 4 days

CANON CITY, Colo. – An 8-year-old boy on his first camping trip missing for four days was found alive Tuesday in a rugged area dotted with pinon pine and juniper trees and creased by steep cliffs and narrow ravines.

A search team on ATVs found Evan Thompson in an area called Hole in the Wall Gulch almost 5 miles from where the boy wandered away from a campsite Saturday, 35 miles southwest of Pikes Peak.

"He's alive and well," an elated Zak Slutzky of Western State Mountain Rescue in Gunnison and a spokesman for the operation said when the boy was found. "He's completely unharmed."

Evan was found at about 4:20 p.m. in an area so remote and rugged, it took rescuers nearly 11/2 hours to bring him out to a staging area. Rescuers gave the boy pizza and he was reunited with his legal guardian Teddi Gray and her husband, Arthur.

The boy had been excited to go on his first camping trip, Gray said.

"We are overjoyed and overwhelmed to have Evan safe and back with him in our arms," Gray said while clutching Evan, who looked tired and sleepy after spending nearly 80 hours in the elements.

Nearly 100 rescuers and three aircraft were searching for Evan in rugged country about 90 miles south of Denver near where he was camping with family friends and a teacher. About the time Evan was found, rescuers were investigating reports of sounds of a child crying in a canyon in the area.

Rescuers and his family remained optimistic throughout the search that the boy could survive in the gray sweat shirt and sweat pants he was wearing when he disappeared in weather that remained mild. They cited the case of 11-year-old scout Brennan Hawkins, who was found alive last fall near Kamas, Utah, after going four days without food or water in a rugged wilderness area.

"He's a pretty resilient little boy, he's a great kid," said Gray, shortly before Evan was found.

Rescuers concentrated their search within a 15-square-mile area, retracing earlier searches as well as expanding the zone.

"He couldn't have gotten lost in rougher country," said Ronnie Stewart of Canon City, who volunteered to join the search but was turned down.

Gray and other family members were riding in search vehicles and calling for Evan over loudspeakers in case he was hiding from the rescue teams.

"Younger children, they may think they're in trouble, so they might hide," Slutzky said. "A lot of kids are told not to approach strangers."

Gray even broadcast promises of a trip to the store to get hot dogs, pickles and a raspberry Slurpy.

The boy, who has attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, had been without his medication for several days, Gray said. Slutzky said rescuers altered their search based on their experience with previous searches for people with similar disorders.