Texas 5-Year-Old Found Safe 17 Hours After Wandering Into Wilderness

For 17 hours, 200 volunteers and law enforcement fanned out in search of the little boy.

The family of a 5-year-old boy is calling him “the toughest little cowboy in Texas” after he went missing and spent the night alone in the cold before he was found.

Cameron Crumrine, who’s affectionately known as “Curly,” had wandered off with his dogs from the family ranch in Bandera around dinner time. The location is remote and filled with thousands of acres of thick brush and wild animals.

When the dogs returned home without him, his family feared the worst. 

“It got down to about 35 degrees that night. As the night went on and it got colder and colder, I was thinking the worst,” Curly’s mom said.

“You can’t imagine your life going on and really ever feeling joy again,” Curly’s grandmother said.

For 17 hours, 200 volunteers and law enforcement fanned out in search of the little boy.

At 11:30 a.m. the next day, a rancher spotted Curly wandering miles from his home and waved down a search helicopter. 

The boy walked to an awaiting ambulance. Volunteers cheered as he was carried to a helicopter.

His family was overjoyed that he was found alive and safe.

Today, Cameron is all smiles, and his family promises all of their cowboy’s adventures from this point forward will be strictly supervised. They’ve also attached a tracking monitor to his watch, just in case.

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