“He’s good! He’s up and talking. He’s already asked to watch Netflix,” Casey’s mother, Brittany, said after he was found.
Breanna Hathaway, who identified herself as Casey’s aunt, also said the boy told his family he was with a bear for two days.
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Harsh weather that included heavy rains and winds impacted the search for the child.
Officials were also concerned the boy wasn’t appropriately dressed for the bad weather.
But when he was found, the sheriff’s office said he was in good health.
Is It Possible?
“I don’t think there’s a word to describe how happy I was,” Casey’s mother told Inside Edition.“I wanted to go home,” Casey added.
Wildlife expert Chris Lasher said that the boy may have spotted a bear.
“It is possible that Casey saw a bear,” Lasher noted, adding that the area where he was found is “perfect bear territory.”
But could a bear have taken care of the boy?
“Bears are very nurturing animals, but they take care of their own. I’m not sure a bear would see a young child in distress as a possible something they have to take care of,” Lasher told Inside Edition.
His mom believes her son.
Rough Terrain
“The terrain is treacherous. Areas are flooded and filled with sinkholes, even the trained searchers are having trouble navigating safely,” the office told USA Today.Sheriff’s officials downplayed notions that the boy was abducted from his grandmother’s yard.
“The terrain was woods. It was thick in places,” added Max Dudley, a volunteer. “Some places it wasn’t that thick, but we took our time and you see the next person, and you look and you look and you look.”
“You have so many people volunteering from our community and surrounding areas because they were putting themselves in the shoes of the family,” youth pastor Jonathan Ipock said. “What would happen if that was one of their children? It’s just amazing to see everyone come together to help.”