Laclede Sheriff Praises Community For Helping To Find Missing Children

The Laclede County Sheriff’s Office is giving credit to a large contingency of first responder agencies and civilians in the search effort for two young children from Phillipsburg which came to an end with their safe returns to family.

Sheriff Matt Frederick says the incident first started during the evening hours on Monday when the father of the 4-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl woke up from a nap and reported that the children were missing from the residence.

With offers to help also coming in from civilians, several agencies got involved in the search which also included the use of the highway patrol’s helicopter, search and rescue dogs and a drone.

The children were located about 5-and-a-half hours later at around 1:20 Tuesday morning on an unoccupied property some 900 yards from their residence before being checked out by a Mercy medical team and reunited with family.