By GENARO C. ARMAS
\nAssociated Press Writer
\nWATER STREET, Pa. (AP) \u2014 A 20-month-old boy who wandered away from his foster parents\u2019 rural home was found in a cornfield Monday with a few scratches on his face but otherwise unharmed after spending a freezing night outdoors.
\nDonavin Miller was found about 1:40 p.m. Monday less than a mile from his home in Water Street, a tiny village southwest of State College. He had been missing since about 5:30 p.m. Sunday when his foster mother, Naomi Martin, saw that he was no longer playing outside.
\nThe boy was dressed in a heavy denim jacket, a flannel shirt and sweat pants, and rescuers said temperatures overnight Monday had dipped into the 20s.
\nKen Doyle, a Geeseytown volunteer firefighter stationed at a traffic roadblock, heard the toddler crying Monday but couldn\u2019t see him right away, so he called for more help.
\nThey found him five minutes later, three rows of corn from the road, after he stood up in the field, cried and raised his arms in front of him, said searcher John Smith, of Osceola Mills.
\n\u201cHe looked like he wanted to be picked up. He looked like he wanted to go home,\u201d said Smith, one of about 400 rescuers. \u201cHe looks like anyone would look like if they spent the night in a cornfield, scared, cold. He was just happy to see us.\u201d
\nThe call into the command post elicited a big cheer that could easily be heard in this rural area of west-central Pennsylvania, about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh. Donavin was taken to Tyrone Hospital as a precaution.
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t know what to expect, where he could be, how it could have happened in such a short period of time that he got away so far,\u201d said David Martin, brother of Donavin\u2019s foster father, 34-year-old Luke Martin. David Martin had been searching woods when he got the news.
\n\u201cI was really relieved that he was found,\u201d said Michael Burkholder, brother of Luke Martin\u2019s 33-year-old wife, Naomi. \u201cIt\u2019s a blessing.\u201d
\nDonavin and his 4-year-old brother live with their foster parents on a cleared plot of land with several out buildings. The boys were placed with the family in March through The Bair Foundation, a Christian nonprofit foster care organization.
\nThere was no sign of other vehicles or people in the area at the time the boy disappeared, Naomi Martin said. State police said there were no signs of any suspicious activity.
\nRescue teams searched by helicopter and horseback to navigate more difficult terrain, which included steep hills covered with leaves that had fallen off trees. Most other groups formed lines in fields and woods to search on foot.
\nPolice also used a bloodhound that Naomi Martin said was able to pick up the boy\u2019s scent.
\n\u201cThey had (the scent) at times, but then they lost it,\u201d she said before the boy was found.
\nPolice called off the search about 1:30 a.m. Monday, but resumed at daybreak. David Martin said family members never stopped their search overnight.
\nNaomi Martin said she and her husband have been foster parents to seven children in the past three years and have an 11-year-old son.
\nFriends and relatives of the Martins, many of them children, ran from the couple\u2019s home, down a rural road to the rescue command post when they heard the news that Donavin was found, smiles on each of their faces.
\nAs rescuers left the village, they were greeted by residents handing out hamburgers and holding a handwritten sign on a white bedsheet that read \u201cThank you, all.\u201d
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014
\nAssociated Press Writer Joe Mandak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By GENARO C. ARMAS Associated Press Writer WATER STREET, Pa. (AP) \u2014 A 20-month-old boy who wandered away from his foster parents\u2019 rural home was found in a cornfield Monday with a few scratches on his face but otherwise unharmed after spending a freezing night outdoors. Donavin Miller was found about 1:40 p.m. Monday less […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area","category-excerpts-from-the-tyrone-daily-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}