Child Rescued After Wandering From NE Minnesota Home in -10 Cold

Get our free mobile app

Ely, MN (KROC-AM News) - A young Minnesota child is hospitalized today following a harrowing ordeal in bitterly cold weather.

The Ely Police Department today reported that officers responded early yesterday morning to a report of a missing child. A news release says the child's father called 911 and said he was unable to find his three-year-old daughter. What he did find was an exterior door on the home open and the girl's boats missing. The temperature was around 10 below zero.

A search was almost immediately launched with law enforcement officers and first responders from other agencies joining in the effort. Ely Police Chief Chad Houde says a K9 officer from the Virginia Police Department led searchers to a vacant house next to the child's home.

About an hour after the search began, officers located the missing girl in the unheated porch area of the residence. the news release says she was breathing, but was very cold and responded slowly to the officers. She was taken back to her home to warm up until an ambulance arrived and transported her to the hospital in Ely.

Chief Houde says the staff at the Ely hospital was able to stabilize her and arranged for her to be transported to a larger facility. The girl was last reported to be in stable condition. At this point, it's not known how long she had been exposed to the bitter cold.