Posted 1:12 pm Friday, February 03, 2012
Sheriff: 'Divine Intervention' Helped Searchers Find Missing Girl
By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer
It's a tale of adventure for 3-year-old Zoey Smith, who told forensic interviewers that she and her pit bull dog Brownie walked more than two miles over rugged terrain and through a creek, where she went underwater, and dense woods before being found Thursday night.
Despite major setbacks during the hours-long search for the missing Canton girl, law enforcement officials said through divine intervention, the child was found safe.
Van Zandt County Sheriff Pat Burnett said the story of Zoey's ordeal and her safety was one that made his heart smile.
Burnett was not sure why the child wandered away from the home on County Road 4207, but he heard she might have been searching for a puppy that had been taken away earlier in the day by family members.
About 1 p.m., Burnett's office was called by the child's grandmother to report Zoey missing.
Before the child was found, more than 100 people searched the area on foot and by air. The search party included sheriff deputies, firefighters, state troopers, FBI agents, constables, game wardens and Alert Academy members.
Burnett said he and his office took the brunt of some undeserved criticism for the handling of the case because an Amber Alert was not issued.
“We had people working in the office on getting an Amber Alert issued for Zoey, but after we submitted everything we learned the case did not meet the criteria that Austin requires," the sheriff said.
Burnett explained an Amber Alert is issued only if there is direct evidence that a child has been abducted.
“We didn't have any evidence she had been abducted. We had a neighbor who said they saw an SUV in the area, but as the search continued, the color of the vehicle kept changing,” he said.
Burnett said his dispatchers and deputies in the office did get a Region 1 and Region 6 alert issued, which sent vital information to surrounding counties and gave officers the right to pull over any vehicle which was carrying a small child and a pit bull.
Austin Amber Alert officials sent Zoey's photo and information to the Fusion Center, which sent all the information to all media outlets in the state.
But with limited information officials could only keep searching.
“That is all we had. As it turned out, thankfully, Zoey was not abducted at all,” he said.
Burnett said behind the scenes of the search, FBI and deputies were conducting interviews with family members and all area sex offenders had been questioned in reference to the case.
“There was a lot going on. Even though we were calling off the ground search where she went missing, we still had people in the woods when she was found. We were never giving up the search. We were expanding from the area that we had searched exhaustively,” he said.
Burnett said learning Zoey was found and was not injured was the best news he had heard in a long time.
“The helicopter's Fleer, a device used to detect body heat, didn't work yesterday because the ground was too hot. Then we had darkness falling on us and rain moving in. It looked like everything was against us, but it wasn't. We had divine intervention,” he said.
When asked if he was surprised that Zoey and her dog had made it almost two miles away from home through a densely wooded area, across a deep ravine and Kickapoo Creek and a boggy area before being found, Burnett laughed, “Not after I met her. She's a real firecracker.”
Staff Writer
It's a tale of adventure for 3-year-old Zoey Smith, who told forensic interviewers that she and her pit bull dog Brownie walked more than two miles over rugged terrain and through a creek, where she went underwater, and dense woods before being found Thursday night.
Despite major setbacks during the hours-long search for the missing Canton girl, law enforcement officials said through divine intervention, the child was found safe.
Van Zandt County Sheriff Pat Burnett said the story of Zoey's ordeal and her safety was one that made his heart smile.
Burnett was not sure why the child wandered away from the home on County Road 4207, but he heard she might have been searching for a puppy that had been taken away earlier in the day by family members.
About 1 p.m., Burnett's office was called by the child's grandmother to report Zoey missing.
Before the child was found, more than 100 people searched the area on foot and by air. The search party included sheriff deputies, firefighters, state troopers, FBI agents, constables, game wardens and Alert Academy members.
Burnett said he and his office took the brunt of some undeserved criticism for the handling of the case because an Amber Alert was not issued.
“We had people working in the office on getting an Amber Alert issued for Zoey, but after we submitted everything we learned the case did not meet the criteria that Austin requires," the sheriff said.
Burnett explained an Amber Alert is issued only if there is direct evidence that a child has been abducted.
“We didn't have any evidence she had been abducted. We had a neighbor who said they saw an SUV in the area, but as the search continued, the color of the vehicle kept changing,” he said.
Burnett said his dispatchers and deputies in the office did get a Region 1 and Region 6 alert issued, which sent vital information to surrounding counties and gave officers the right to pull over any vehicle which was carrying a small child and a pit bull.
Austin Amber Alert officials sent Zoey's photo and information to the Fusion Center, which sent all the information to all media outlets in the state.
But with limited information officials could only keep searching.
“That is all we had. As it turned out, thankfully, Zoey was not abducted at all,” he said.
Burnett said behind the scenes of the search, FBI and deputies were conducting interviews with family members and all area sex offenders had been questioned in reference to the case.
“There was a lot going on. Even though we were calling off the ground search where she went missing, we still had people in the woods when she was found. We were never giving up the search. We were expanding from the area that we had searched exhaustively,” he said.
Burnett said learning Zoey was found and was not injured was the best news he had heard in a long time.
“The helicopter's Fleer, a device used to detect body heat, didn't work yesterday because the ground was too hot. Then we had darkness falling on us and rain moving in. It looked like everything was against us, but it wasn't. We had divine intervention,” he said.
When asked if he was surprised that Zoey and her dog had made it almost two miles away from home through a densely wooded area, across a deep ravine and Kickapoo Creek and a boggy area before being found, Burnett laughed, “Not after I met her. She's a real firecracker.”
