Home at last, Evan Thompson sipped from a souvenir Spider-Man cup Wednesday afternoon and offered an 8-year-old’s unaffected, fast-forward summary of four days lost in the rugged southern Colorado mountains.
“I was sleeping in a rock,” said Evan, apparently referring to a cave where he took shelter after wandering away from his campsite. “Then I got out and a guy appeared. Then, he took me. He found me. And I went on his TV show.”
The ordeal that scrambled an estimated 250 volunteers from 20 agencies – plus tracking dogs, airplanes and helicopters – after the boy went missing Saturday morning ended with joy and relief late Tuesday afternoon when he was found in amazingly good condition sitting on a rock by an all-terrain- vehicle trail northwest of Cañon City.
After Wednesday’s long ride home, the boy, clad in a T-shirt and blue jeans, smiled for cameras and spoke briefly in the driveway of the Lakewood house where relatives and a celebratory cake greeted him.
But details of his odyssey remain sketchy.
“We don’t know what his adventure was,” said Art Gray, Evan’s uncle and, along with his wife, Teddi, legal guardian.
Evan, who has been diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, doesn’t remember much of what happened and has trouble articulating what he can recall, the Grays said.
And so the timeline of his camping trip with Kathleen Crowe, his special-education teacher from Peiffer Elementary School in Jefferson County, has emerged in pieces, both from Evan’s own spare descriptions and the accounts of others.
But the Grays are clear on one point: They blame no one – especially not Crowe, whom they call “one of his guardian angels” – for the turn of events that left everyone fearing the worst.
“His teacher is the most awesome lady I’ve seen in my life,” Art Gray said. “I wouldn’t have let Evan go with just anybody.”
“Nobody’s to blame here”
The Grays have been Evan’s guardians since Sept. 1, when he and a 14-year-old sister were removed from their parents’ custody after a drug bust.
The Grays gave Crowe permission to take him camping in Fremont County – a personal outing, not a school-sponsored event – because she has made remarkable progress with him in school and they welcomed the chance for their nephew to learn to camp.
Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Cindy Stevenson said the teacher violated no district policies. Crowe declined to discuss the incident Wednesday, calling it “traumatic.”
Although Crowe told Evan to sit and wait Saturday morning while she washed dishes and got him some juice, the boy disappeared into the heavily wooded area surrounding the campsite, the Grays said.
“Nobody’s to blame here,” said Teddi Gray. “Even Boy Scouts walk away and get lost.”
While Evan was waiting for his teacher to return with juice, he spotted a crow nearby and followed it into forest, he later told rescuers. By the time he had gone 50 yards, the campsite had disappeared behind him in the thick woods and undulating terrain.
When Crowe couldn’t find Evan, she and others along on the trip immediately fanned out and began calling his name. After 45 minutes and no luck, they called the Fremont County sheriff and notified the Grays.
“They did everything right – they looked for an hour and then called us,” said L. Chris Larson with Fremont County Search and Rescue.. “They said they turned around and he was gone.”
The Grays didn’t leave home immediately because authorities figured the boy would be found quickly. But later, with only the clothes on their backs, they drove to the campsite and began to help in the search-and- rescue operation.
Evan, dressed in a sweat shirt, athletic pants and sneakers, had no food or water with him. When he got thirsty, he drank from a drainage area where water had pooled.
“The water was gross,” said Evan, who later was given medication to ward off possible parasites. “My shoe got wet. My Spider-Man shoe. I saved it.”
He also left distinctive shoe prints in the wet ground that proved helpful in tracking his whereabouts. Other prints in the area had revealed heel and toe indentations, but these bore the unmistakable tracings of a superhero.
An elusive little boy
Evan left other unintentional “bread crumbs” as well. Searchers found sticks poked into anthills – evidence of a little boy’s natural curiosity. He would later tell rescuers that he spent the days chasing snakes, watching birds and playing with bugs.
Still, Evan proved an elusive little boy – even when searchers drew near.
“At a couple points,” said Art Gray, “because he didn’t know anybody, he’d duck behind trees to avoid people. They were strangers to him, and he knows he’s not supposed to talk to strangers. He did what he was supposed to do.”
Evan admitted to being scared – of the huge helicopter that hovered overhead from Saturday night into Sunday morning. And while searchers from Kirkland Air Force Base in Albuquerque used infrared technology to try to locate the boy overnight Sunday, his fear of the noisy chopper sent him scurrying to hide among rocks, where the technology couldn’t detect him.
On Sunday morning, as Teddi Gray walked the area hollering for her nephew, Evan heard her and yelled back, he told her later. But his aunt never heard him, as windy conditions drowned out his voice.
Evan’s medication quickly became another concern. Although he had been given his once-daily dose of Concerta, a longer-lasting reformulation of the ADHD drug Ritalin, the effects wear off after 12 hours.
The search wore everyone down.
“By Day 4, you get to the point of sheer exhaustion,” said Teddi Gray. “Every horrible thing that could possibly happen goes through your mind.”
A small voice calls out
At 12:12 p.m. Tuesday, searchers caught a break. After days of calling Evan’s name, one volunteer heard a response.
“Who are you?” said a small voice.
They yelled back, but got no response. Still, the voice helped rescuers narrow their search area.
About four hours later, Steve Zuckerman of the Vail Mountain Rescue was headed along a trail on his ATV when he spotted a young boy sitting about 50 or 60 feet off the trail in a place called Hole in the Rock Gulch. He had one shoe on, one shoe off.
Zuckerman, who has an 8-year-old son of his own, recalled that he approached the boy cautiously, not wanting to frighten him.
“Is your name Evan?” he asked.
“Yes,” the boy said.
“Are you lost?”
“I think I am.”
Zuckerman helped him put his shoe on, gave him some Gator ade and a couple of M&Ms. Remarkably, Evan appeared to be in good physical condition – not even frightened or anxious.
Zuckerman told Evan he was a hero, and the boy repeated the words over and over: “I’m a hero. I’m a hero.”
But more than anything, he wanted to get back to camp and eat pizza, Zuckerman said.
The boy later told rescuers that he had tried to find a mountain to climb so he could see the campsite.
“I was just walking around,” said Evan.
According to his uncle, the boy could have wandered as far as 11 miles in various directions, weaving a random trail in and out of gullies that ultimately put him about 5 miles from the campsite when rescuers found him.
After a visit to a Cañon City hospital, where staff treated him for little more than scratches and mosquito bites, Evan spent the night at a motel with the Grays before rising at 3 a.m. Wednesday for an appearance on “Good Morning America.”
And then, more pizza.
On Wednesday afternoon, tucked safely back in Lakewood, the Grays didn’t hesitate when asked if they’d let Evan go camping again.
“Absolutely,” they said in unison.
“We’ll never keep him from it,” said his uncle. “We’ll just help him do it better.”
Staff writers Karen Rouse and John Ingold contributed to this report.
AVOIDING STRANGERS
“At a couple points
because he didn’t
know anybody, he’d
duck behind trees
to avoid people.
They were strangers
to him, and he
knows he’s not supposed
to talk to
strangers. He did
what he was supposed
to do.”
Art Gray
