Touching video footage taken from a police helicopter captured the reunion between an Ohio 3-year-old and his parents last week. The child, Ilya Dunin of Xenia, Ohio, went missing last Thursday after a caretaker lost sight of him and he wandered into a nearby cornfield.
Though Ilya had slipped away from his own fenced backyard, cornfields in the area stand tall this time of year, roughly between seven and 10 feet, according to the local sheriff’s office and the family. This fact, paired with his straying onto a large expanse of land rife with brush, a creek and two high-speed nearby roads, prompted parents Bella and Leo Dunin to call for help as soon as they were notified of his absence.
“We had a close family friend visit, and she comes to play with him, so they were playing, and my husband was at work, and I went inside to feed the baby and 30 minutes later, I get a phone call from the family friend saying she lost him in the cornfield,” mom Bella told USA TODAY. “He got away from her somehow and the cornfield is about 10 feet high, I believe, so it was pretty easy to lose him.”
Bella immediately raced outside and called her husband, who contacted authorities for help.
“It was obvious right away we would need help because we have 55 MPH roads on either side of the cornfield,” she said.
According to backyard footage later reviewed by Bella, Ilya seemingly disappeared into the woods around 5:15 p.m. ET on Thursday, July 20. By roughly 5:50 p.m., the Greene County Sheriff’s office had been called and responded to the scene along with the fire department. Upon seeing just how large the search area was and how dense the corn had grown, Sheriff’s deputies quickly called for further assistance, according to Greene County Sheriff Scott Anger.
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In short order, officials from multiple departments and volunteers, including neighbors, friends of the family and community members, had 75 to 100 people combing the area in search of the boy. Drones were deployed, said Anger, and Ohio State Patrol was contacted to provide ariel support.
Soon after, The Ohio State Highway Patrol Aviation Unit had a helicopter in the air scanning the area for the boy. Officials battled the hot, humid weather and the forecast for the night, which predicted heavy rain and severe thunderstorms.
“I couldn’t imagine him being alone out there with lighting and thunder and rain,” Bella said.
The first sign of Ilya was spotted by a volunteer, who found his shoes beside a creek that cuts through the fields. The creek had been a favorite spot of his last summer, said Bella, but the discovery initially prompted more anxiety than relief.
“The news was we found his shoes by the creek, and he doesn’t know how to swim,” Bella said. “I know it’s shallow in those spots, but it gets deeper, and I don’t know how deep.”
Police used K9s to continue the search along the waterway and continued to give feedback to the pilot in the air. After about two hours, the boy was spotted exiting the tall cornfields and walking into the much shorter, easier to parse soybean fields close by.
In the helicopter footage provided by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Ilya is seen pushing his way through the field, while the pilot can be heard radioing down to ground searchers that the boy had been spotted. He then instructs rescuers on the boy’s location and a group of people is seen rushing to greet him.
A young woman in a red shirt, who Bella identified as a neighborhood teenager, can be seen nearing the boy and picking him up. According to Bella, the teen approached her son in a “smart” and “careful” way, calmly speaking to him in his native language of Russian before pulling him into her arms. A man in a grey shirt and a baseball cap identified by Bella as “Matt,” the farmer who owns and tends to the crops on theirs and a nearby property, then gives the pilot a thumbs up.
Ilya’s parents were notified over radio that he had been found and he was returned to them soon after.
“The young boy had covered a lot of ground in that cornfield and at one point had crossed a 55 MPH road,” said Sheriff Anger. “So, he made quite a trip through the corn then back over the road and under a bridge.”
Ilya’s parents also marveled at how far he had roamed, saying they estimated he had traveled a little under a mile, a good portion of which was in the creek.
“I was worried he’d be very scared but he’s a very fearless boy so even in the footage, you can see him marching through,” said Bella. “He must have remembered [the creek] so he ended up wading it, he was soaking wet. He must have fallen in, he had a pretty serious scratch on the side of his face and a bruise on his forearm.”
Luckily, Ilya was found unharmed save for the bruises and scratches. His family doctor arrived on the scene to give him an on-location health check, which turned up clean.
Bella, who describes herself as “helicopter mom,” said that Ilya had never before been alone like this, so she suspected he was scared at one point, as any 3-year-old would be. By the time authorities gave him a lift back on a golf cart, however, he seemed more interested in the police cars and firetrucks swarming his house than what he had just been through.
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“I saw him coming in a golf cart and he loves golf carts and police cars and firetrucks, so he was really happy, like he was having a great adventure,” said Bella. “It was an adventure [riding] back for him and it was cool to him.”
Bella said she and Leo were notified that he had been found around 7:30 p.m., while Sheriff Anger says the search officially wrapped up around 8:15 p.m. While Ilya luckily came back before nightfall with only minor injuries, Bella described the search as one of the most terrifying moments of her life, a sentiment any parent would understand. However, the experience also showed her the power of her community.
“It was an amazing relief, incredible relief,” she said. “It was the scariest two hours of my life and the fact that I was so supported this whole time, so many people here, over 100 people, neighbors, friends, people I haven’t seen before, they were all looking.”
She said that she was stunned by the number of officials who responded quickly to assist in the search, including firefighters, rangers, the sheriff’s office and the highway patrol.
“Everyone was so kind and supportive. It was really heartwarming to feel that support,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it was happening but at the same time, I came down after the initial shock because I knew everything that could be done was being done.”
Bella said the experience reminded her just how quickly things can go awry with children, no matter how careful you are. A self-proclaimed overprotective parent, she said she has always had an eagle-eye trained on her son.
“I think the craziest part is how careful, how hypervigilant I always have been with him, [as] one of those anxious mothers, I was always so careful with him, and it’s not ever enough,” she said. “It was just so scary to realize how little control you have, even as a parent over the most precious thing in the world.”
“But you are not alone,” she added. “Everyone was amazing, I cannot even think of a better response. Everyone was kind and understanding and it really gave me a lot of hope.”