Lost Child Found - Mountain News
More than 27 hours after he slipped through a fence opening and bolted from a schoolyard, searchers on Tuesday located a severely autistic 8-year-old boy whose disappearance had galvanized the mountain communities and riveted TV viewers across Southern California.
Joshua Robb was found at 2:27 p.m. in the woods, approximately one mile northwest of Grandview Elementary School, authorities said.
"He came out of a thicket and said, 'thank you, you saved me," Twin Peaks Sheriff's Lt. Rick Ells said, describing Joshua's encounter with members of Rescue Team 34, from the Sheriff's Department's San Bernardino Mountain Search and Rescue Team.
Sheriff's Department spokesperson Jodi Miller said the 4-6, 70-pound boy was in good condition, though he reportedly has some cuts and bruises.
SHIRT FOUND
Ells said Team 34 members had spotted Joshua's shirt, wet and wadded into a ball, at 12:50 p.m. Searchers photographed the shirt and showed it to members of the boy's family, and they identified it as his, Ells said.
The tracking team then continued on, following Joshua's shoe prints for about a mile and a half and calling out his name. A little more than an hour and a half later, they found him, tired and slightly dehydrated.
Ells said team members gave food and water to the boy and carried him to a clearing where Sheriff's Air Rescue 6 lowered a medic to assess his condition. Joshua was then hoisted up to the helicopter and flown to Loma Linda University Medical Center for observation.
Searchers had been concerned for the boy's status because he was in the forest overnight during a heavy downpour. When found, he was wearing only his shorts, authorities said.
Joshua was reunited with his relieved parents at the hospital. Authorities said the boy was very tired but not seriously injured.
ANOTHER TRAUMA
Joshua's disappearance marked yet another traumatic experience for his parents, Ronnie Robb and Patricia Ann Calcott. The couple's Lake Arrowhead home was recently foreclosed, and they lived briefly in a tent on the property of their former home as they removed their belongings from it.
They were arrested Aug. 22 on charges of cruelty to a child when a Realtor spotted Joshua tethered to the deck at the house. Robb told deputies at the time that Joshua runs away and gets in trouble.
Robb has also said that in the confusion of moving out of the Lake Arrowhead home they could not find the tether they normally use to keep Joshua from running away, as autistic children are prone to do. That's why, he said, Joshua was tied with a rope to the deck support when authorities arrived.
Joshua had been in the custody of the county's Children and Family Services Department since that incident. He was returned to that agency after his release from the hospital Tuesday night.
Chris Lee, a spokesperson for District Attorney Michael A. Ramos, told this newspaper Tuesday that his office had decided not to file charges against Joshua's parents. "There was insufficient evidence to support a criminal filing," Lee said.
Robb and Calcott stayed at one of the units at Arrowhead Pine Rose Cabins, across the street from the sheriff's station, during the ordeal.
PARENTS ELATED
When they learned Joshua had been found safe, the parents were both relieved and overjoyed. Robb expressed his thanks for the community's involvement in the search, and said he believes Joshua ran from school to find his parents.
Search-and-rescue teams from four counties, as well as dozens of citizens, had joined the hunt for the boy, and bloodhounds from as far away as Murrieta participated in the search. On Tuesday, Ells said, 65 searchers, four dogs and two helicopters were involved in the hunt.
Ells said the tracking dogs had not yet reached the area where Joshua was found, so their keen noses proved not to be a key factor in locating him.
One tactic searchers used to attract Joshua's attention was playing music and a recording of his father's voice through a special device normally used to emit a high-pitched sound to break up riots. The device was mounted on a pickup truck and driven on streets around the school, but did not prove effective in the search, Ells said.
One of the songs was Ozzie Osbourne's "No More Tears," one of Joshua's favorites, while another was Alan Jackson's "Good Time."
BEEHIVE OF ACTIVITY
Official search efforts were coordinated at the Twin Peaks sheriff's station, which was a beehive of activity from midday Monday through Tuesday afternoon. Vans from at least five Los Angeles television stations camped out around the stations, their reporters filing periodic updates on the searchers' progress.
Meanwhile, a group of volunteer citizens carried out similar efforts from a small command post at the senior center in Twin Peaks.
Terri Rubio, who helped organize the senior center volunteers, said she felt compelled to get involved.
"I got up this morning and said, 'I don't know how I can go about my daily routine when there's a child lost,'" she said Tuesday afternoon.
Rubio said more than 100 volunteers had streamed through the senior citizen checkpoint. They were supplied with flyers bearing Joshua's picture and maps of the area where he might be located.
"They text us telling us where they've searched, and we text them back, moving them to another area," Rubio said. She stressed that her volunteers were not getting in the way of law enforcement's efforts to find Joshua.
'WE'RE ALL PARENTS'
"We're all parents of Grandview students," said Jen Gabera, another volunteer. "I just think we're doing what any parents would do."
Christine Reeves, another volunteer searcher, said she knows Ronnie Robb and Patricia Calcott, which motivated her to become involved. She said she used to pick him up at his school bus stop to take him home.
"He'd get off the bus and he was exhausted," she said. "He tires easily." Reeves said she, too, has an autistic son. "They're wanderers," she said of autistic children.
Lt. Ells said Tuesday morning that additional volunteer searchers were not being requested, and urged people instead to pray for the success of the search.
He told this newspaper Wednesday that search-and-rescue teams are activated weekly and are highly experienced at what they do. His department discouraged volunteer searchers because of concerns they might become lost or injured, diverting resources from the primary search, he said.
PRAYER CHAINS
"People put the situation on their churches' prayer chains," said Running Springs resident Colleen Myers. "There was a prayer vigil organized, but when he was found, it was converted into a praise vigil."
Myers said she attended that vigil at 6 p.m. Tuesday night at Twin Peaks Community Church. "It was a brief prayer of thanksgiving," she said.
At the sheriff's command post, search teams from Orange, San Diego, Riverside and Los Angeles Counties, augmented by canine teams, joined rescuers from San Bernardino County in hunting for Joshua.
Twin Peaks Sheriff's Lt. Rick Ells said Tuesday morning that Joshua-who was clad in a shirt, shorts and sandals when he ran from the kindergarten playground at Grandview around 11 a.m. Monday-left a footprint that searchers found.
"We identified the sandals. They were bought at the Bass outlet," Ells said. Authorities obtained a similar pair and matched the sole pattern to the print.
Ells said about 70 members of his department's search-and-rescue teams and members of the department's Citizens On Patrol program were combing the forest, searching for Joshua on Monday morning.
The department's 40 King helicopter was also flying search patterns.
EXPERTS CONSULTED
Ells confirmed his department had consulted experts on autism and learned that autistic persons will run from loud noises.
"That changes the way you operate," Ells said. "Obviously we're going to stop yelling."
"This is not anything unusual for this child," Ells said, referring to his tendency to run.
It was not just the volunteers who reported to the Twin Peaks senior center who got involved in the hunt for Joshua, however. Teachers, parents and residents living around the school also joined the search on Monday.
Sandy Charlebois, an artist who lives on Fairway Drive a short distance from the school, said she and her husband, David, were pulling out of their driveway around 11 a.m. Monday for a trip to the post office when a man drove by telling them there was a child missing.
"We started down the street, and then we said, 'we can go to the post office anytime,'" she said. The couple returned home, got some water, put their dog on a leash, got in their vehicle and joined in the search.
Charlebois said on two occasions she and her husband drove Grandview teachers, exhausted and out of water, back to the school. The couple continued searching until 3:30 p.m., she said.
15 Sep, 2011--
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