How a Hero Photographer Used His Drone to Find a Missing 6-Year-Old

A missing 6-year-old boy in Minnesota was found alive thanks to a drone following a 10-hour search by more than 600 volunteers. 

The frantic search for Ethan Haus had many in Sherburne County looking for the little boy after he got off the school bus with his siblings and ran off to play with the family dog. That was the last time anyone saw him.

As temperatures dropped to near freezing, time was running out to find him.

Then a local photographer, Steve Fines, had the idea to use his drone to help.

"I knew that I could be helpful, so I just had to go," he told Inside Edition. 

It was the middle of the night, so he enabled the thermal imaging feature, and after five hours, he saw two bright spots in the middle of a cornfield an hour outside Minneapolis.

"It was an unusual shape, but I saw something that I thought that looked like a dog and in coordination with the deputy who was with me, they sent out a ground crew to see what it was," Fines said. "When I saw them pick up the boy, I smiled and probably let out a holler and everyone was hollering around me."

On Thursday, Inside Edition spoke with the young boy, his dog and his family. 

Ethan's mom, Sheri, is relieved her son is back home safe and sound.

"We were all overjoyed, there was lots of screaming," she said. 

RELATED STORIES