CARRABELLE, Fla. (WTXL) — It's a parents worst nightmare when a child runs off. The Franklin County Sheriff's Office got a call Thursday morning that four-year-old, Noah Beebe, went missing around 9:30. They immediately jumped into action.
Sheriff A.J. Smith says they called in multiple agencies from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to the Leon County Sheriff's Office.
"Just a host of different agencies came through very quickly to help assist, Department of Corrections with their dogs, we had our K-9 out, and then TPD brought their bloodhound down who subsequently found little Noah," said Sheriff Smith.
Noah is not only young, he has autism, which means finding him was that much more urgent. According to Autism Speaks children with Autism are drawn to bodies of water.
"A big open space, thick wooded area. Water was in proximity," said Detective Paul Osborn with Tallahassee Police Department. "In fact he was standing in water when we found him."
Detective Osborn says K-9 Jon Jon tracked Noah with the scent from his shoe.
"There were a lot of people in the area we were in Jon Jon can identify one specific odor and follow it through all of the different odors," said Detective Osborn.
Sheriff Smith says their K-9 team trains for multiple situations to ensure they're ready when they get a call similar to the one they got Thursday.
"One of our dogs was in training at Apalachicola with a scent team, " Sheriff Smith said. "They were over there training, it's just we constantly train for a variety of scenarios whether it's a missing child, barricaded subject, there's so many things we're training for."
Detective Osborn says days like Thursday are what they train for, and it's that much more gratifying that K-9 Jon Jon helped find Noah so quickly.
"To be able to get in there with the woods and find him in under 15 minutes of deployment of Jon Jon is honestly there's no better feeling than to be able to do that," said Detective Osborn.
Sheriff Smith says many people make the mistake of searching for their missing child or loved one and then calling after a few hours. He says the minute you realize they're missing, you should call so they can come out and help.
