3-Year-Old Found Safe After Two Nights Alone in Montana Woods

Little Ryker Webb spent the weekend outside earlier this month, involuntarily. The three-year-old was playing with his dog outside a family home in northwestern Montana, near Bull Lake, when he seemingly vanished. At roughly 5pm last Friday he was reported as missing while his family had begun combing the woods near his home.

Authorities and volunteers, some operating drones, searched for Webb for 48 hours. Nighttime temperatures were in the low 40s with rain, but Webb found shelter in a log shed. He was healthy, other than being cold, hungry, thirsty, and exhausted when he was found on Sunday. Webb had traveled 2.3 miles from his home, possibly spooked by an afternoon thunderstorm on Friday.

He was discovered by the owners of the cabin who’d swung by to check on it.

“They heard a little boy’s voice from the shed out back where they keep a generator,” said local Sheriff Darren Short. “So they went to the shed and there he was. He had the wide-eyed scared look until he got back to his mom and dad.”