MILTON — A civilian drone operator is credited with spotting a missing 4-year-old Milton girl just as hundreds of community members were gathering to aid on the search.
According to a news release, the Milton Police Department received a call at 5:24 p.m. Friday about a missing 4-year-old child from the area of Arthur Drive and Brown Drive.
At the same time, social media posts were notifying the community that the girl was nonverbal and had autism.
The initial responding units were from the Milton Police Department and the Rock County Sheriff’s Office.
Mutual aid requests were sent to nearby agencies for K9 units and drone teams to further the search efforts.
The Fort Atkinson Police Department and Madison Police Department responded with K9 units.
The Wisconsin State Patrol, Rock County Sheriff’s Office, Lakeside Fire, and Janesville Fire Department responded with drone teams to assist the search.
Several hundred Milton area community members responded to assist in the ground search with law enforcement.
In addition, several civilians assisted with their personal drones in the search.
Prior to mobilizing the civilian-aided ground search, a civilian drone operator located the missing child in the corn field on the southeast corner of HWY 59/S. Janesville St.
The child was located at 9:15 p.m. and reunited with her family. The child was uninjured and smiling at the first responders who located her.
In a post in the Milton Community Group, the girls mother thanked the community.
“The amount of love, support, non judgement and pure kindness tonight really blew me away. From the people who brought their drones to the people who stopped by and asked if any of us needed to eat to all those people out in that field looking for her,” she wrote.
The Milton Police Department said appreciates the response from community members who aided the search efforts on foot and by air.
The Rock County Sheriff’s Office, Wisconsin State Patrol, Fort Atkinson Police Department, Madison Police Department, Wisconsin DNR, Rock County Emergency Management, Lakeside Fire and EMS, and the Janesville Fire Department assisted.