A parents’ horrifying nightmare came to a miraculous end after their toddler wandered into a remote desert before being spotted nearly a day later when a rancher’s dog rescued him.
Bowden Allen, 2, vanished from his home in Seligman, Arizona, about 100 miles south of the Grand Canyon, on April 14 around 5 pm, sparking a massive search for the toddler.
Bowden’s parents, Cory and Sarah, were caring for their one-year-old at the time and started to panic when they called for Bowden’s name and he didn’t answer.
The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office launched a search and rescue operation overnight, but had no luck finding the toddler.
‘It started — getting more intense every minute,’ Cory recalled to NBC affiliate KPNX News.
Sarah told the outlet that she ‘didn’t even know how to process’ her child’s disappearance, adding, ‘I looked at his empty bed in the middle of the night, and I’m like this isn’t real, he’s not — how is he not here? How is he out by himself somewhere in the dark?’
After an exhaustive overnight search that required 40 search-and-rescue members and several deputies, a rancher found the little boy seven miles away from his home some 16 hours later.
Scotty Dunton said his dog, Buford, had found Bowden in a tree and walked with him for a mile.
‘There’s three big canyons and ridges all the way leading to where he came from, so that’s a long rough piece of country. It’s amazing he made it as far as he did,’ Dunton told KPNX.
Dunton said that Buford is an Anatolian Pyrenees and frequently patrols the property to keep coyotes off the ranch.
He added that Buford ‘loves kids’ and believed that his dog wouldn’t leave the child by himself.
The rancher said he recognized Bowden from the missing person flyer and reported that the toddler was on his property.
Bowden told him that he had slept under a tree, and Dunton commended the toddler for being the ‘toughest little two-year-old.’
‘There was a thousand ways for that to go really, really bad and one good way and luckily it turned out to be the good way,’ Dunton added.
Bowden only had minor scratches from being out all night. Sarah called his safe return a ‘miracle.’
‘I feel like God sent that dog to rescue my son,’ Cory added.
The seven-mile radius that Bowden had wandered in was filled with lions, coyotes, and occasionally bears.
The sheriff’s department added that while deputies were searching overnight with a helicopter, they spotted two mountain lions along Bowden’s path.
‘YCSO thanks DPS, search and rescue teams, Coconino County Sheriff’s Office, Mohave County Sheriff’s office, and the public for sharing the flyer. And of course, Buford the dog, who stayed with the boy and brought him to safety,’ the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Bowden has since been reunited with his parents and is recovering from his journey in the desert.
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