7-Year-Old Boy Found

Search ends as dog sniffs out missing 7-year-old
Thursday, November 23, 2006
By John Tunison
The Grand Rapids Press
ALPINE TOWNSHIP -- In a matter of a few minutes, Kali's nose accomplished what 60 searching police and firefighters could not.
And she works for liver treats.
The 5-year-old bloodhound quickly made a happy ending Wednesday out of a terrifying scenario for any parent -- a child missing in frigid temperatures. Montez Parham, 7, was cold and frightened, huddling in an apartment building hallway for nearly three hours after losing his way home, when Kali went to work. She picked up his scent in the huge York Creek Apartments complex off Alpine Avenue and made a beeline for the boy's location.
"They lock everything else out except the scent they are searching for," said Ron Lindblom, Kali's handler with Mid Michigan Working Dogs. "This was a very short search and a very good result."
Investigators knew they had found the boy -- dressed in only a T-shirt, boxer shorts and tennis shoes -- when Kali lifted her paw at him.
"The dog identifies a find by giving us that sign," Lindblom said. "We gave her a treat and now she's happy."
The discovery -- and a subsequent joyous reunion between Parham and his family -- capped a frenzied, intensive search that began when his father, Tony Lee, awoke at 8:15 a.m. to find Montez missing from the family's apartment at York Creek. He called police, who already were nearby after a worker at the Alpine Avenue 7-Eleven store called authorities more than 30 minutes earlier to report a boy in the store.
"I'm just glad he's OK," Lee said after learning Montez was safe. "My whole chest was tight."
Police think the boy, off from school, left his apartment about 7:30 a.m. to head for 7-Eleven, but later could not find his way back in the massive complex. Montez was found at 10:30 a.m. as the bloodhound briefly passed the unit where he huddled, but a resident there emerged to say a boy was in the hallway.
Outside doors to the York Creek units are locked, but police think Montez entered the hallway as another resident left earlier in the morning. The unit is only about 400 yards from the family's home.
"He's a child that got up in the morning, didn't have to go to school and probably went for a hike," Kent County sheriff's Lt. John O'Rourke said.
Kali is the same animal that found a 47-year-old woman who fell unconscious in a Spencer Township cornfield in September. She was reported missing five hours earlier.