Sleepwalking girl missing in woods found with thermal imaging drone
A 10-year-old girl who sleepwalked into the woods and went missing was found in what was ‘truly a miracle’ using a thermal imaging drone.
Peyton Saintignan disappeared around 10pm on September 14 when she unknowingly wandered off into the woods close to her home in Shreveport, Louisiana, said the Webster Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Her family and neighbors began a desperate search for her and the sheriff, state police and volunteers numbering in the hundreds joined in an hour later.
Among them was Josh Kolber, the co-owner of Drone Management Services LLC.
Klober traveled around 40 miles from Arkansas with a drone that had a thermal imaging camera.
They used a photo of Peyton captured on a hunter trail camera.
‘We staged up and got everything set up, set the generator up,’ drone operator Josh Kolber told Good Morning America.
‘We had a big, flat-screen TV.’
Of all the eyes, ears and tools that were deployed, it was Klober who discovered Peyton roughly a mile-and-a-half from her home, around 11pm on September 15. She was missing a shoe and was curled up.
‘Other than some mosquito bites, she was perfect,’ said Sheriff Jason Parker. ‘It’s truly a miracle that she was unharmed.’
Klober described seeing the child in the same purple and white pajamas that she was wearing when she vanished.
‘She was laying there,’ Klober said. ‘She wasn’t moving and everybody was just kind of holding their breath.’
The best friend of Peyton’s father who was part of the search team woke her up shortly afterward.
First responders and members of Child Protective Services examined Peyton before she went back home, where she was ‘very glad’ to be, Parker said.
‘She was very happy to go back to her loved ones,’ said the sheriff.
Peyton’s family said that she had sleepwalked on various occasions in the past, but never outside of her home.
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