Inconsolable grief is the only way to describe the community as word gets out.
So many questions and so much pain – unimaginable grief.
Emergency services responded to a daycare centre on County Road 45 north of Cobourg, just south of Baltimore at approximately 5:20 p.m. on Thursday, May 25, 2023.
The call was for a 20-month-old missing little girl.
When the mother came to pick her child up, she was missing. The little girl was last seen approximately 20-minutes previously.
The was an open well that was inside the fenced in playground area.
Firefighters, police, paramedics, friends, family and strangers began a frantic search. Along the sides of County Road 45, behind the daycare centre, all through the playground area, under cars, inside sheds, down a hill, through thick, dense brush.
The only thing you could hear was the crackling of tree branches and brush from people walking and the constant yell of the child’s name echoing by family members and emergency services.
There were tears, but always hope. It’s happened before when small children, or even seniors go missing. Sometimes small children are found under a bed, or in a closet. There was always hope.
Minutes went by – the wailing sounds of sirens as more police, more fighters and paramedics came.
More people joined the search.
A police canine unit was on its way.
The grandmother of the child came up and spoke with me. I told her it happens, everyone is here and more are coming. She’ll be found and be alright I said. Those words haunt me.
The little girl was found inside the well.
Those shouts by women calling out her name when they were searching, were replaced by screams from the little girls family when they were told the news.
It’s images and sounds that will never leave.
The pale, blank look on the faces of emergency service workers.
Everyone wanted to find the little girl safe. Everyone.
No one could ever have imaged the outcome.
There are many questions that will need to be answered.
Rest assured they will. It’s not a time for judging.
This is the time, at this moment and for the foreseeable future, pray to whatever God you believe in for this family and their child. Hold them in your thoughts.
A family will never be the same.
Our deepest thoughts and condolences go out to the family and friends of the little girl.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
