Fremont County – The search continued a third day for an 8-year-old boy who strayed from a campsite in a remote area north of Cañon City.
Search teams discovered Evan Thompson’s freshly made prints from Spider-Man shoes Sunday afternoon.
They could not, however, find the youth, even using infrared equipment Sunday night.
Evan lives in Lakewood in foster care with his uncle, said his mother, Mary Thompson, who said she lost custody of her two children last year after her husband was arrested in a drug raid at their home.
She saw Evan last Wednesday and told him things were working out for her: She had a new job and was getting an apartment. A June 6 court hearing is set to determine her custody, she said.
“He thought right away he could go with me,” she said, growing more distraught as she spoke Monday evening.
She said authorities won’t let her go to the search site.
“That’s my son, that’s where I need to be,” Evans said, between sobs.
“He’s out there in the dark, and I need to be looking for him. If they’re tired, I’m not. I need to go find my boy.”
Saturday, Evan was staying in a camper with family friends. He wandered off about 9 a.m.
“This is only Day Three,” Steve Wilson, spokesman for the Alpine Rescue Team of Evergreen, said Monday. “We’re not really concerned yet.”
“A child is amazingly resilient,” Wilson said. “With this kind of weather, he can go days, even weeks.”
“He could have followed a butterfly,” said Steven Sperry, spokesman for El Paso County Search and Rescue.
About 65 searchers from 14 Colorado and New Mexico agencies combed the area looking for the boy on Monday, Wilson said.
People were searching on foot, on horses and in ATVs, he said. They called out using friendly tones to avoid scaring the child.
“We’ve got people going over the edge of cliffs with ropes to see if there is something in the bottoms, but they haven’t found anything, which is good,” Wilson said.
The boy has been without food, water and medicine for more than two days now, Sperry said. Evan has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
A helicopter with infrared equipment from Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico searched for the boy until about 3 a.m. Monday, he said.
Another helicopter crew from Buckley Air Force Base searched for him Monday.
The searchers were encouraged Sunday when they found his footprints, Sperry said.
“Every time he stepped down in the dust he left a very distinctive imprint,” Sperry said.
“They kept tracking him all night. They kept crisscrossing the area the tracks led them to.”
Rescue workers were concerned because the boy was on a plateau that has 150-foot cliffs on the eastern and northern edges, Sperry said.
The remote area is covered with scrub oak and is home to predators, such as mountain lions and coyotes.
Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-820-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell contributed to this report.
