Missing 1-year-old found dead in rural Calhoun County after walking out door of home
A 1-year-old girl who went missing from a rural Calhoun County home Saturday night has been found dead in a pond, St. Louis TV stations are reporting.
The sheriff’s department is investigating the death as an apparent drowning. Deputies, family members and volunteers had searched for the toddler all night.
“We’re told that an older sibling opened the door and the 1-year-old walked out the door,” Patrick Clark of Fox2Now news reported from the scene early Sunday morning.
Family members discovered that the girl wasn’t in the house about 10:30 p.m. Saturday and learned that she had gone out a door opened by her sibling, another toddler, KSDK Channel 5 reported.
The family searched outside but couldn’t find the girl and called the sheriff’s department for help. The children’s parents weren’t at the home, KMOV4 reported.
The home is located near Ash Bridge Hollow Road and North Mississippi River Road, north of Batchtown along the Mississippi River, about 65 miles northwest of Belleville.
The area is a mix of farmland and woods with some steep terrain.
On Sunday morning, Clark quoted Sheriff Bill Heffington, who also serves as county coroner, as saying that cadaver dogs had been brought in as part of the search.
“We’re told that there was a pond there that the dogs were led to, but they did not find anything initially,” Clark said. “Now later on, Sheriff Heffington has confirmed that they did find the body of that 1-year-old there.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information. Also, it’s unclear if the 1-year-old’s parents were home when she went missing, as previously reported.
This story was originally published August 8, 2021 at 9:55 AM.