Missing 9-year-old boy found alive after three day search in woods
A 9-year-old boy was found safe wearing no jacket or shoes by a creek bed in Tennessee on Tuesday after a three-day search in the woods.
Jordan Gorman was discovered on Tuesday at around 3 p.m. underneath a shelter made out of tarp, three-quarters of a mile away from his home in Cheatham County, Tennessee, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said.
“Cold and hungry, but otherwise in pretty good spirits!” TBI said in a tweet on Tuesday. “Good to see you, Jordan!”
His family said Jordan ran away after a disagreement and was last seen on Sunday afternoon at his family’s home in Ashland City, 30 minutes northwest of Nashville, NBC affiliate WSMV News4 reported.
TBI initially sent out an Endangered Child Alert on Sunday before raising it to an Amber Alert on Monday afternoon. Jordan was recovered the following day by a rescue team from Kentucky, the Christian County Rescue Team.
A search crew member told the TV affiliate they almost missed the boy until they came upon a blue tarp in the heavily wooded area.
"As I got close to the tarp and noticed there was a mass in it, naturally the worst was going through my head initially until the tarp moved," Mathew Reese said. “It was just the biggest holy crap, I got him.”
Reese and the other two rescue team members, all of whom are fathers, said they treated Jordan as if he was their own child.
"That’s what makes you drive to get out there and find him,” Logan Fryar, a Christian County Rescue Team member, said.
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TBI officials said Jordan was being medically evaluated after spending two nights in the woods at frigid temperatures.
In the past three days, temperatures dropped to the low 20s in the Nashville surrounding area, according to the National Weather Service.
Authorities said Jordan didn’t say anything initially but eventually warmed up to them.
Aaron Hatt, Jordan's father, told News4 that his son has autism. At the time of his son’s rescue, Jordan was living in Cheatham County with his two siblings and their foster parents, according to Hatt.
When Hatt heard the news that his son fled the home, he said he was shocked because Jordan would never leave his older sister, Jocelyn.
"I don't think that per se, but I just know that it seems odd that he wouldn't come back if nothing else because he got hungry or because he was looking for Jocelyn," Hatt said.
Hatt added that he was both relieved and blown away by his son’s ability to survive in the woods by himself for three days.
"He’s always just been really resilient and an explorer type but to be standing for two days with no jacket no shoes no socks,” Hatt said. “It’s just crazy.”
