Thursday, October 20, 2005
BY SHARON B. ADARLO AND TOM HAYDON
Star-Ledger Staff
The desperate search for a 10-year-old Sayreville boy missing since Monday ended last night when he was found alive, but unconscious, underneath a deck in a neighbor's backyard.
Manuel "Manny" Vargas was found about 7:30 p.m. by a K-9 rescue unit that began searching the neighborhood near the boy's Thompson Place home just a half-hour earlier.
"I don't believe without the help of this team, we would have found him in time," said Barry Eck, Sayreville's emergency management coordinator.
The boy was taken to Raritan Bay Medical Center's Perth Amboy Division, where he was admitted to the emergency room at 8:25 p.m., hospital spokeswoman Donna Sellmann said. Manuel, who was with his parents, was in good condition and was to be admitted overnight, she said.
"You can't just even imagine. Words can't explain how happy we are," Manuel's mother, Dawn Vargas, told Fox 5 News. "Manny is a little dehydrated. He has a couple of scratches. He's a little lethargic right now, but he's doing well.
"He didn't have anything to eat or drink in two days," she said. "We told him we loved him. I hugged him and I kissed him."
It was not immediately clear how long Manuel had been under the deck or why he was unconscious. However, police said last night they don't think the boy was under the deck the entire time they were searching for him.
The fifth-grader was reported missing at 7:30 p.m. Monday by his parents, who told police they believed the boy had run away after an argument over a school progress report.
The Scarlet Drive home where Manuel was found is almost directly behind the Vargas house, no more than a few hundred feet away. The backyards along Scarlet Drive had been searched at least twice before the K-9 unit arrived around 7 p.m. yesterday.
Eric Martin, chief of the Central Jersey Technical Rescue Team, said members of his organization cleared the area of volunteers and asked residents to stay inside to allow the dogs to pick up the boy's scent.
Sayreville volunteer firefighter Jody Somers and Valerie Mokides of the New Jersey Search and Rescue Team based in Bergen County were walking through yards when her dog, Lara, an 8-year-old German shepherd, suddenly stopped at a backyard deck surrounded with lattice work.
Mokides said Lara kept pacing back and forth in front of the lattice and scratching at the ground.
"We're always taught to trust our dog," said Mokides, a volunteer with the group, who is also a pediatrician. She shined her flashlight through the lattice, saw some clothing, then the boy.
Somers said he ripped off the lattice and crawled in to see who was inside.
"Once I saw him breathing, that was a relief," Somers said. "It was an amazing relief. We've been doing this (search) for 48 hours."
"It felt good," Mokides said.
Sayreville Police Chief John Garbowski said the lattice work was so thick, even the homeowners were astounded that Manuel had managed to crawl underneath the 3-foot-high deck.
"I was completely shocked," said Sommer Zakrzewski, who lives in the house. "I just got home from work when I heard noise in the back. They started saying out loud, 'He's under the deck, he's under the deck.'"
Zakrzewski said her family does not know Manuel or his parents.
Manuel was the object of an intensive search that had attracted hundreds of police, firefighters and other volunteers.
Neighbors said searchers had combed backyards of the neighborhood at least twice, but did not have the K-9 dogs with them during the initial search.
"I never thought they would find him next door," said Susan Giglia, who lives next to the Zakrzewskis. "I noticed the (search party had) been here twice, but my neighbors said they'd been through here several times. They kept zeroing in on this area."
The search began Monday night, resumed Tuesday and continued throughout the day yesterday.
Searchers combed a vast wooded area off Cheesequake Road behind Sayreville War Memorial High School yesterday, going over the same hilly terrain that had been searched the day before.
On Tuesday, Manuel's distraught parents had appealed for their son's safe return.
"We're not mad at you, we miss you," his father, Manuel, said at a news conference at police headquarters.
Authorities declined to give any details about the argument with his mother.
Staff writer Saba Ali contributed to this report.