Fremont County – A four- day search for a missing Lakewood boy came to joyful end Tuesday afternoon when searchers found 8-year-old Evan Thompson in the mountains northwest of Cañon City.
“He’s alive and well,” said operation spokesman Zack Slutzky of Western State Mountain Rescue in Gunnison.
Evan was found about 4:20 p.m. in an area known as Hole in the Rock Gulch, about 5 miles from where he was last seen Saturday while on a camping trip with his teacher, who has not been identified, and family friends.
“At this time, I would like to thank everyone involved with the search for Evan,” his aunt and legal guardian Teddi 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.”
After retrieving Evan 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.”
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. “… 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.”
Evan was transported 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.”
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.
Evan’s party had parked their camper Friday on private property off Shelf Road. 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. .
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 of public and private land, Slutzky said.
More than 90 searchers from around Colorado combed the area on foot, in ATVs 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.
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. Thompson said the woman applying her makeup said she was glad she had put waterproof makeup on her.
“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.”
Gray said her nephew takes medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and has been diagnosed with sensory integration disorder, significant limited intellectual capacity, and emotional and behavioral disorders.
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.”‘
Before he disappeared, Evan was wearing a gray sweat shirt, gray “breakaway” athletic pants and Spider-Man tennis shoes, which left distinctive “spider web” prints in the ground that aided searchers in their efforts. Evan’s footprints were first spotted Sunday. But crews using infrared equipment that night found no additional signs of the boy.
On Monday, about 65 searchers again combed the area without success.
Searchers on Tuesday came across new “spider web” tracks and other signs – broken branches and other disturbances – that Evan had been in the area.
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.
