Troy, Montana in June of 2022. 3 year old Ryker and his father were playing outsidein their backyard. His father would tell him to stay there as he navigates his way back inside. For what? It was never specified as to why. Upon returning the father would come to realize that young Ryker was no longer in the yard. Both mother and father would search around the neighborhood and asking everyone if they had seen him. When their efforts were exhausted after 2 hours they would finally call the police.
Darron Short the local Sheriff immediately arranged a search party.Gathering 50 searchers that very evening to start looking for Ryker. The search teams would use hunting dogs and drones, as well as helicopters. Sheriff Short also setup a Red Alert to all areas surrounding Troy.
"A toddler of age 3 with blue eyes and blonde hair is seen missing from Troy County today. He will be in blue button down pajamas. Please search out your properties and coordinate in rescuing him."
A few hours into the search a Thunderstorm rolled in, hitting the area rather harshly. With Montana having a vast wilderness and mother nature being uncooperative, the night fall would make it extremely difficult to search the terrain. Heavy rain would halt the search. Sheriff Short would stay up through the night listening to the police radio in case any updates on young Ryker would come in.
The following day search parties would return to the wilderness that was home to mountain lions and brown bears. During the search on this new day they would find overturned rocks that would create a path of direction finding more overturned rocks. Believing Ryker had turned these rocks over since the parents had stated that he loved looking for bugs. They would follow the overturned rocks all the way to the end of the forest that connected to Sanders County. By then the sun was setting and they marked another trail to search for the next day.
The morning of June 5th when the team was preparing to start another day of searching for the toddler, Sheriff Short received an update. Young Ryker had been located. He was found by a home owner on Pineridge Road in Sanders County. The man had gone out to check on his generator in a small shed when he heard what sounded like a childs voice. He also heard movement and thought maybe their was a critter in his shed. As he approached the door he heard the babbling of a toddler. Opening the door he would find a young boy who resembled the missing toddler he had been seeing in the news. Seemingly he had entered the shed to find shelter from the Thunderstorm. This shed was 2.4 miles away from his home. Once on location, Sheriff Short confirmed the young boy to be Ryker Webb and surprised to find him safe and sound. The boy was obviuosly scared but comforted when told he would be returned to his parents.
Ryker didn't seem to be traumitized in any way and immediately perked up upon reuniting with his family. He was dehydrated but he made a quick recovery.
Over 2 thousand children are reported missing every day in the U.S.
Approximately 8 million children are reported missing a year worldwide.
Strangers abduct less than 1% of missing children.
Parents are accountable of 90% of abductions.
Nearly 400,000 children were abducted in 2020.
Every 2 minutes a child is reported missing in Europe.
2020 only a third of missing children were found.
One in six runaways are likely to be victims of Child Sex Trafficking.
71% of non-family abductions happen on the way to school.
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I remember hearing about this as the search was still active. I always wondered how long the father was inside before he came back out. It would have taken Ryker more than a couple minutes to get far enough away that the father wouldn't be able to easily locate him or for Ryker to be so far away he could not hear his name being called. I am glad he was found and didn't become another horrible statistic. The abduction of a child is horrifying to me. What a scary thing for a parent.