The fishing party returned from their expedition on schedule. The boys had each caught a fish and the men caught a limit between them-more than enough for a dinner of fresh mountain rainbow trout. The boys remained excited following the river trip, and quickly engaged in an imaginary game of stalking big game. The men likewise busied themselves stowing the fishing gear, straightening the camp, and preparing the trout for the evening dinner.
But Jacob and the wives were not in camp. The Hammonds’ Nissan was missing and Ryan assumed that the women had decided to visit town for some early sightseeing. Ryan knew that Jacob would be grumpy; he wouldn’t like being with two women and a toddler, but Sarah would never leave him alone in the campsite. No more than a half-hour passed, however, before Sarah and Sue returned with only Grant-Jacob and Minnie were not with them.
Panic set in as the adults took stock of the situation: Ryan insisted he’d told Sarah that he was leaving Jacob behind; Sarah was equally certain she misunderstood this when Jacob was not in camp after the men went fishing-she assumed that Ryan had changed his mind, taking him along after all.
The initial consensus was that Jacob might simply be hiding, playing a prank for having been left behind. With this in mind, a cursory search of the area developed with everyone loudly calling Jacob’s name. Neighboring campers were alerted and many eventually joined the search for the missing boy. When the initial search was unsuccessful, Ryan and Roman returned to the campsite to look for any clues about Jacob’s whereabouts.
Ryan remembered his shock following the first hour of Jacob’s disappearance. First he denied it was happening: He can’t be missing; he’s somewhere nearby. It wasn’t like Jacob to wander off because the muscular dystrophy made walking, even on flat ground, very difficult for him. Ryan was unprepared, however, for the level of anxiety that escalated with each passing hour. Imagining that he might lose his little boy was an agonizing blow.
As the second hour of his absence approached, with Sarah becoming increasingly distraught, Ryan agreed to contact the Sheriff’s Department. So began one of the most humiliating and helpless experiences of Ryan’s life: having to admit that he had lost his handicapped six-year-old son. Ryan shuddered from the thought, a pain stabbing his chest. He wondered how he could have been so careless, and what he could have done differently. He still felt terrible guilt when he recalled the incident.
Sergeant Jack Redman from the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Department was the responding officer to the 911 call. Because Redman was three-quarters Navajo Indian, Sheriff Harrison Alford thought it wise to assign him the search-and-rescue duties for the department. It had not been a bad decision; Sergeant Redman had assembled one of the most highly qualified SAR teams in New Mexico, widely recognized by EMS professionals as the premier rope rescue team in the state.
Redman in turn alerted Captain Tom McGuirk of the Pecos volunteer SAR team, who mobilized the squad to the Pecos Valley campsite at Soda Spring. Within an hour of receiving the 911 dispatch from the SO, Redman was on the scene as volunteers from the surrounding area began trickling into the campsite.
With the SAR team in place, it was approaching four hours since Ryan and Sarah first realized Jacob was missing. To make matters worse, a formation of clouds slowly moved over the area, threatening to bring rain by evening. The situation couldn’t have been bleaker. Ryan never could shake the shame he felt the day of Jacobs’s disappearance. He regretted the humiliation of answering questions about his appearance, habits, and what could have caused him to vanish. He still fought back the hopelessness he remembered from the experience. He would have given anything to have prevented the situation.
Jacob had been missing for over five hours when the volunteers from the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Department expanded the search. Ryan marveled at the practiced efficiency with which Sergeant Redman dispatched the SAR members. A tracking team followed Jacob from his last location near the campfire; a group was sent down to the river; a team on horseback was dispatched to cover the ridge above the river canyon. Finally, a motorcycle team was directed to scour the roads for any sign of the missing subject.
Each volunteer carried a picture of Jacob-a classic of him sitting in his wheelchair, wearing a red flannel shirt, coveralls, oversized boots, and a hard hat. Was it not for the wheelchair, his attire would have perfectly blended with any of Ryan’s workers. He had a euphoric look on his face-swelling with pride to be at work with his dad, his sheer enjoyment outstripping his inability to participate. Ryan was never without this picture. It was the quintessence of Jacob’s persona. He was so courageous, so humble, and so angelic that it begged the question why God could allow such a horrible condition. There was no justice in it.
It was near twilight when Ryan slipped away from the frenzy of the search. He was heartbroken and could no longer handle the strain. He told Roman he was going for a walk to collect his thoughts, but would return after a brief period of solitude.
As Ryan walked from the campsite, he could hear the faraway dissonance of motorcycles combing the forest for any sign of Jacob. He hadn’t walked more than a quarter-mile when he was overcome with grief. He broke down, his eyes welling with tears as he dropped to his knees, crumbling from the grief of losing his son. It was the worst feeling of his entire life.
Ryan begged God to safely return Jake, to give him one more chance-that it couldn’t yet be the time to take him away. He had always imagined that when the end drew near, they would all be together, holding Jacob close, giving him love as he was taken to heaven. He could not accept that this was going to be the end. His life just couldn’t end this way.
“Please, God,” Ryan cried out, “give me more time…let me care for him a little while longer. Please don’t take him from me now.”
For some incredible reason, Ryan was overcome by a reassuring calmness. There was a scant hour of daylight remaining. He needed to act. He couldn’t remain on his knees, hoping for a miracle. Something told him to drive the back road one last time. He never even considered ignoring the impulse.
Back at the campsite, Sarah rushed to him, grabbing his hand with tears streaking down her face, looking expectantly for answers. He explained his plan to drive the road one last time, thinking that maybe the searchers were not looking far enough.
He and Roman jumped into the truck and sped out of the campsite. They drove one mile straight up the hill following the dusty road as it switch-backed higher and higher up the mountain. At two miles, Roman questioned if it was possible for Jake to have made it this far. Ryan replied that no one had searched this road all the way to the top and that was where they were heading.
At three miles, the road became even steeper. It didn’t make much sense to proceed further, but still Ryan persisted, holding his resolve to drive to the top of the mountain.
At four miles from the campsite, the road split into two directions. The men jumped from the truck to see if they could find any tracks. There were small animal prints that looked like a dog. The discovery buoyed their spirits. Against incredible odds, the prints appeared to be from Jake’s little dog, Minnie. The tracks bore to the left and the men hurried to the truck to resume their search.
At just under the five-mile mark, as they approached the Pecos wilderness summit, Ryan beheld one of the most beautiful sights his eyes had ever seen. There, sitting by the side of the road in his dusty blue coat and red ball cap, was Jacob, Minnie by his side. Ryan jumped from the truck and raced toward him, lifting him up, embracing him, and saying: “Thank you, God. Thank you. Thank you for giving him back to me.”