An 11-month-old baby was found buried alive in a dog crate in South Carolina after more than 24 hours underground, and the infant is now fighting for his life in a hospital.
Little Koah Sharpe was discovered locked inside a crate wrapped in a towel and buried in a shallow hole on Tuesday, Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon told reporters. The boy had been missing since Monday morning, when his father, Michael Comer, 25, vanished with him from a babysitting arrangement.
Comer’s mother had been watching Koah and briefly left the infant in his father’s care while another caregiver was on the way. “By the time the caregiver got there, Michael was gone and Koah was gone with him,” Koon said.
Koah’s relatives filed a missing person report Monday afternoon, but no Amber Alert was ever issued. “To be able to issue an Amber Alert, you have to have a known description of a car and a license plate to put that out,” Koon explained, noting that Comer does not have access to a vehicle.
More than 100 first responders from local, state and federal agencies joined the search. Investigators believe Comer spent Monday moving across the county by hitching rides. “Bumming rides, calling rides, just getting rides from place to place,” Koon described.
That afternoon, authorities found Koah’s belongings at Comer’s residence, where both doors had been left open. The father and son were nowhere to be found. Later Monday night, police located Comer in a shed in Batesburg and arrested him on burglary and resisting arrest charges.
“Of course, he didn’t have much to say about the whereabouts of the baby at that time,” Koon said.
The breakthrough came Tuesday when searchers near Comer’s house spotted freshly disturbed dirt and pine straw about 50 yards into woodland. Once they began digging, they heard something that turned the operation into a desperate race against time.
“So as you imagine, the race was on,” Koon said. “Everybody’s getting down there trying to get him out.”
Koah had been confined in a 2-by-2-foot crate in a shallow hole for roughly 24 hours. “He was screaming at the top of his lungs, which is a good thing in the baby world, I would guess,” Koon noted. The sheriff believes the towel wrapping created a critical air pocket that kept the infant alive. “By the grace of God, [the crate] probably provided enough air for him to survive our estimation of the last 24 hours under that dirt,” he said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Koah remained “clinging to life” in the hospital. Koon expressed hope that the infant would “make a full recovery” and eventually have “a great inspiring story to tell.”
“Hopefully at 11 months old, he will not remember much of this as he grows older,” Koon added.
Comer was still in custody Tuesday afternoon, with additional charges related to Koah’s disappearance pending. Koon said no motive was immediately known, though he noted prior domestic violence incidents between Comer and Koah’s mother. The arrest came just one month after Comer was placed on probation following a guilty plea for aggravated breach of peace, according to court records cited by WIS 10. Earlier this year, he had also been arrested for domestic violence and a weapons-related offense.
The case has drawn attention to the strict requirements for Amber Alerts, which the Justice Department mandates must include sufficient descriptive details about the child, suspect and abduction — often including license plate numbers — before law enforcement can activate the warning system.
Comer is expected to face further charges as the investigation continues.