Missing children found alive

News Virginian Staff
Published: October 6, 2008

AUGUSTA SPRINGS — Search teams this afternoon found two missing children who were part of a group of six hiking in the Augusta Springs Wetlands area of the George Washington National Forest on Sunday.

The two children were seen sitting in the back of an ambulance belonging to the Churchville Volunteer Rescue Squad eating cookies.

Authorities had earlier in the day released the names and descriptions of two missing children who became separated from a party of six hiking in the Augusta Springs Wetlands area of the George Washington National Forest on Sunday.

A team of more than 100 law enforcement officials and volunteers had taken part in the search for Zen Ezra Phelan Darby, 8, and Khari Dawn Hatfield, 11.

Darby has brown hair, blue eyes and was last seen wearing gray sweatpants, a maroon soccer t-shirt and a dark blue sweatshirt. He is known to sometimes have low blood sugar.

Hatfield has long brown hair and was wearing a green dress with pink and black sandals.

Both children, according to Augusta County Sheriff Randy Fisher, had been without water for about 24 hours.

Searchers this morning indicated that they had found small footprints in an undisclosed location and a baby stroller belonging to a 49-year old woman. The woman, along with three other children, was found around 8 p.m. last night. The stroller was found about two miles off of a path where the group had been hiking, while the four people were found last night about three miles off of the path.

The two children had become separated from a party of six hiking a trail in the George Washington National Forest on Sunday.

“We’re going to search as long as we’ve got the resources,” Fisher said.

Lt. Travis Karicofe of the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office said the search teams are “incredibly optimistic. We have ex-perts from across the state.” He said they were told they’d have unlimited state resources to find the missing children.

One of the children is believed to be from Martinsburg, W.Va. while the other is believed to be from Princeton, W.Va. Authorities did not say which one was from where.

The search area has been extended from a three-square mile wetlands to a 10-square mile area as far north as Elliott’s Knob, Fisher said. Elliot Knob, the highest point in the George Washington National Forest.

The Augusta County Sheriff’s Office said searchers looked throughout the night in a three-square-mile wetlands area in western Augusta County for the 8-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl.

Four other members of the group who had gone missing, a 49-year-old woman and three other children, were found by the sheriff’s office by 8 p.m.

The sheriff’s office said volunteers are welcome today, but warned the terrain includes “extremely steep ground.”

“The area they’re in goes into an enormous area, the George Washington National Forest,” said Capt. Dwight Wood. “It’s a lot of area. How far these kids have gotten in there, nobody knows.”

Wood said no clues were found overnight.

One of the volunteers described the rough terrain.

“We went straight up,” said Bobby Snyder. “There’d be a flat spot at the top of the ridge, then [we’d] go down over to the point where I’d be sliding down on my butt.”

Snyder said the wooded area was so dark and dense that “you couldn’t even see the stars.”

The woman, a West Virginia native, told authorities that the group became separated from one another about 6:30 p.m. She and the children, ranging in age from 11 years to 12 months, were visiting friends in the area.

Cpl. E.L. Carter of the Sheriff’s Office said the group began their walk about noon and were reported missing about 4:30 p.m.  The Sheriff’s Office sent out fresh search teams about 8 p.m. to search on foot for the two lost children.

Searchers were told to concentrate on creek beds that lead through the wetlands to Little North Mountain. The hope was that the search teams would find the children along the creek beds. Carter said ATVs, a Virginia State Police bloodhound and helicopter were initially used in the search Sunday afternoon.

In addition to the sheriff’s office and Virginia State Police, the effort has been aided by the Churchville and Craigsville fire and rescue squads, and the U.S. Forest Service.  As many as six bloodhound dogs and other dog teams, as well as hikers and volunteers have been part of the search.

It’s the first such extended mountain search, according to Fisher, since the mid-1990s, when a search turned up four to five high school and college age people. They were found alive, he said.