Intense Search for Missing 3-Year-Old in Towering Cornfields Involves 100 Cops, Volunteers and Helicopters

Law enforcement officers, volunteers and helicopters scoured towering cornfields in Ohio searching for a missing 3-year-old boy.

The toddler's distraught parents feared the worst.

"It was unreal," mom Bella Dunin told Inside Edition. "When I first heard he was missing, I got so stressed that I went numb," she said of her lost boy, Ilya.

Some three hours after he disappeared, the boy was spied by a police helicopter using infrared imaging, not among the tall corn, but pushing his way through a bean field.

"We've got him. They're giving us a thumbs up," the relieved pilot says.

Bella and Leo most feared the number of creeks in their area, and 55-mph roads nearby.

Police said the little boy had managed to cross one of those roads. Ilya received a lot of scratches and lost his shoes, but was otherwise OK, authorities said.

Ilya had managed to slip away while in the company of a family friend, his parents said. They vowed to keep a closer eye on him to avoid any more solo adventures.

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