Fremont County – The four-day search for an 8-year- old who disappeared on his first camping trip came to a joyful end Tuesday when searchers tracking “spider web” footprints discovered Evan Thompson in the mountains northwest of Cañon City.
“He’s alive and well,” operation spokesman Zack Slutzky of Western State Mountain Rescue in Gunnison said shortly after the Lakewood boy was found about 4:20 p.m.
Evan wandered away from a campsite Saturday morning wearing a gray sweat shirt, athletic pants and Spider-Man tennis shoes, which left distinctive “spider web” prints in the dirt.
Teddi Gray, the boy’s aunt and legal guardian, said her nephew, who has been diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, told her he spent his time poking at numerous anthills with a stick.
“The ants wouldn’t come out,” Gray recalled Evan telling her.
But his poking and shoe prints left the telltale signs that led searchers to him in the Hole in the Rock Gulch area, about 5 miles from where he had last been seen.
More than 90 searchers from around Colorado and a National Guard helicopter canvassed an expanded search area Tuesday. Bill Clendenning of Douglas County Search and Rescue described it as rough terrain covered by scrub oak hiding loose rock and steep drop-offs.
“At this time, I would like to thank everyone involved with the search for Evan,” Gray said after being reunited with the boy. “The support we received was amazing. We are overjoyed – overwhelmed – to have Evan safe and back with us in our arms and our hearts.”
Slutzky said Evan was discovered by members of Vail Mountain Rescue.
“He looks phenomenal. … You wouldn’t know he was out in the woods that long,” Slutzky said. “He’s very tired. He’s hungry, but he’s doing great. All he was pretty much interested in was eating some pizza and drinking some soda. He was pretty tired. I think he wants to take a nice, good nap.”
Asked whether Evan understood the gravity of the situation, Slutzky said, “I’m not sure it’s sunk in yet.”
Evan was transported out of the rugged countryside for more than 90 minutes by all-terrain vehicle and then by another vehicle before he was reunited with his aunt at 6 p.m.
“It was heart-wrenching,” Slutzky said. “The family is overjoyed to have him back. She was hugging him, and it didn’t look like she was ever going to let go of him again.”
After retrieving her nephew from a sheriff’s car, Gray asked Evan if he could say “Hi” to reporters gathered at the search command center. Wearing a red hooded sweat shirt and blue jeans and clutching a stuffed animal, he responded, “Hi.”
Asked by a reporter how he was doing, he replied, “Good.”
Evan was driven away from the scene in a Fremont County Sheriff’s car. He was taken to St. Thomas More Hospital in Cañon City for observation.
The boy had gone on the camping trip Friday with his teacher, who has not been identified, and family friends.
After a Saturday breakfast of Lucky Charms, milk and an orange, he wandered off about 9 a.m. and wasn’t seen again until Tuesday. The teacher had planned to give him a lesson on backcountry dos and dont’s right after breakfast, Gray said. .
She said Evan was excited about the camping trip, believed to be his first.
“I packed him a big, huge bag with lots of clothing for all the weather. It must’ve been 20 pounds, … and he tried to carry that out to the car. And he was saying, ‘I’m ready, Aunt Teddi, I’m ready.”‘
Evan lives in Lakewood in foster care with Gray and her husband. His mother, Mary Thompson, said she lost custody of her two children last year after her husband was arrested in a drug raid at their home.
Mary Thompson learned Tuesday evening that Evan had been found safe.
“I jut want to see my baby and hold him and tell him I love him,” Thompson said outside the west Denver home she shares with her mother, Josephine Gray. “I’m just so happy.”
Thompson said she was being made up for an interview with CNN’s Nancy Grace when she learned Evan had been found.
“I took a minute and I praised God,” she said. “I can’t wait to see the smile on his face and hear him say, ‘Mom.”‘
Thompson said she was proud of Evan for surviving, and she called him “a tough little sucker.”
Thompson said the distinctive sneakers were a gift from Evan’s grandmother.
“Right on, Mom,” she said.
Staff writer Jim Kirksey contributed to this report.
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
Evan Thompson was found Tuesday in an area known as Hole in the Rock Gulch, about 5 miles from where he was last seen camping with family friends and a teacher.
As the hunt for Evan entered its fourth day, the search area was extended to the north, growing from 9 square miles to 15 square miles. More than 90 searchers from across Colorado combed the area on foot, in all-terrain vehicles and on horseback as a National Guard helicopter surveyed the area from above. Bill Clendenning of Douglas County Search and Rescue described the area as rough terrain covered by scrub oak hiding loose rock and steep drop-offs. Rescuers remained hopeful they would find Evan safe, noting the case of an 11-year-old Boy Scout who disappeared in the Utah mountains last summer and was found in good condition after four days.
“It’s always phenomenal when we’re able to find someone like this, especially a child who’s been out this long,” said Zack Slutzky of Western State Mountain Rescue in Gunnison. “We never gave up hope, and we were going to keep going on until he was found.”
