Dog tracks lead to missing child

By Elna Seabrooks
Staff Writer
    An experienced hunter, Paul Hemingway of Ludlow, found a 7-year-old boy who had been missing for more than six hours about a quarter of a mile into the woods near Hemore Road in Ludlow last Sunday. Hemingway disregarded what he called a warden’s admonition “that it wasn’t safe and they didn’t want to end up looking for two people.”  
    After hearing about the missing child over a scanner while having lunch at his mother’s house in Hodgdon, Hemingway went home to Ludlow and decided to help because, he said, “this was getting serious.”
    Hemingway told the Pioneer Times he “knew the woods like the back of his hand” and eventually found some dog tracks and a single boot track before “stumbling on the boy and something that didn’t look right.” He said the dog, a black Labrador puppy, still missing at presstime, had run back and forth obscuring all but one of the boy’s tracks.
    “I hollered and the boy jumped. He stood up like he was looking for his dog. Then, I said ‘How are you? You know there’s a lot of people looking for you. We ought to take you home. What do you think?,’” explained Hemingway about the ordeal. The boy told him his name was Dason. But, at first, Hemingway thought it was Jason.
    “I was very relieved to find him. To see where he was, I guess you could call it a miracle. I just happened to come across that one boot track.”
    When Hemingway asked the boy what he was doing out there, the child responded: “I was following moose tracks.” Sgt. Julie Bergen of the state police said the boy’s mother, Rose Osborne of Ludlow, told her the child “is quite adventurous and had taken off with the dog before.” But, this time he was missing until nearly 2 p.m. forcing volunteers, state police, wardens and U. S. Border Patrol agents into a search of the neighborhood and the surrounding area.
    Hemingway explained the child was “a very calm boy and I didn’t want to get him excited.” Armed with his GPS and knowledge of the area, Hemingway later realized the child had headed into the woods over snowbanks from the Hemore Rd. about a mile from home — “three-quarters of a mile from home and a quarter of a mile into the woods.”
    After finding Dason, Hemingway asked him if he wanted to go home. “And, he said ‘yeah, OK’ and away we went.”
    Hemingway said the boy told him his hat was in the hood of his coat but they couldn’t find it or the child’s mittens. So, Hemingway said he covered the child with his inner coat and they walked through deep snow until they arrived at a trail where Hemingway was able to carry the child until they reached the main road. Dason Williams was taken to Houlton Regional Hospital (HRH) for evaluation.
    In describing the probability of finding the child where he was in the woods, Hemingway said: “It would be equivalent to you stepping out of your dooryard, shooting a bullet then, walking back in and telling someone to go find the bullet.”
    Reportedly, prior to his rescue, the child was last seen Saturday night. Bergen declined any comment on an investigation into the boy’s disappearance around 8 a.m. Sunday, rescue that afternoon or his condition.  An official for HRH would only say the child “was treated there and released.”