South Carolina Police Rescue 11-Month-Old Baby Buried Alive in Dog Crate for 24 Hours

LEXINGTON COUNTY, South Carolina — Nearly 100 search-and-rescue personnel pulled an 11-month-old infant alive from a shallow underground grave Tuesday afternoon, ending an agonizing 24-hour manhunt through dense South Carolina woods.

Searchers found little Koah Sharpe wrapped in a towel and sealed inside a wire dog crate, buried beneath nearly a foot of packed dirt just 45 metres from his paternal grandfather's home. The child was crying. He was clinging to life. Paramedics rushed the infant to a regional trauma facility in critical condition, where medical teams continue round-the-clock stabilization efforts.

The boy survived against brutal physical odds.

The 24-Hour Manhunt and Discovery in Wooded Terrain

The crisis ignited Monday when the child vanished from the custody of his family. According to investigators with the Lexington County Sheriff's Department, Koah was staying under the supervision of his paternal grandmother when his father, 25-year-old Michael Comer, arrived at the property. When the grandmother stepped away on a brief errand, Comer was left in charge. A short time later, an incoming caregiver arrived at the residence to relieve him—only to find the front doors wide open, the infant's personal belongings abandoned inside, and both father and son gone.

Family members dialed emergency dispatchers immediately. Deputies cordoned off the perimeter, deploying dog units, tracking teams, and tactical search parties across rural Lexington County. As the hours ticked by, investigators scrutinized area surveillance cameras, which captured Comer at several separate commercial and residential locations completely alone.

Hope flickered. But search teams refused to pull back.

On Tuesday afternoon, trackers sweeping the tree line behind the grandfather's residence spotted an unnatural patch of freshly disturbed earth. They moved in on foot. As deputies drove shovels into the ground, a faint, muffled wail echoed from beneath the topsoil. Crews clawed the dirt away with bare hands, exposing the top of AirNews dog crate.

Sheriff Jay Koon said the towel wrapped around the metal mesh of the crate likely preserved an air pocket, shielding the infant's airway just enough to prevent asphyxiation during the 24 hours he spent entombed underground.

Legal Charges and Remand Proceedings Against Michael Comer

Police had already captured the father prior to uncovering the burial site. Deputies tracked Comer late Monday night to a detached outbuilding on a rural property in Batesburg, roughly 20 miles west of Lexington. Comer allegedly fought responding officers before being wrestled into custody and booked into the Lexington County Detention Center on initial charges of burglary and resisting arrest.

At the time of Comer's arrest, the baby was nowhere to be seen.

Investigators interrogated Comer through Monday night and Tuesday morning as field units intensified the ground search that ultimately located the buried infant. Sheriff Koon confirmed that detectives and forensic units are actively coordinating with local state prosecutors to draft additional, severe criminal indictments against Comer in connection with the child's abduction and abandonment.

Lexington County prosecutors are expected to formally present upgraded felony warrants against Comer during his upcoming court appearance, while pediatric specialists monitor Koah's recovery in the intensive care unit.