A rare happy ending: Baby beats the odds to survive being buried alive

BATESBURG-LEESVILLE, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - The survival of Koah Sharp − a baby buried alive − has a rare happy ending for cases like these.

A quick and decisive response from law enforcement and a little bit of luck may have saved the 11-month-old’s life.

On Wednesday, a day after Koah was found, he’s already back home.

But it almost didn’t happen this way.

On Wednesday, Koah’s grandfather took News 12 to the would-be grave.

It’s where Koah was found the day before inside a dog crate a foot below the surface, crying “at the top of his lungs,” Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said.

Koah was rescued nearly 24 hours after he was reported missing.

The report sparked a massive law enforcement effort that eventually led to the arrest of his father, Michael Comer, 25.

Koon said the wire dog crate was wrapped in a towel that trapped enough air for Koah to cling to life.

To show us the grave, Koah’s grandfather led us into a wooded area off Parthenon Road with plenty of trees well spaced out. In between was sparse brush, and the ground was covered in pine straw.

The hole has been filled in now, but he pointed at an area, drawing out the edges of the 2-foot by 2-foot grave.

Then he started pulling aside the pine straw to reveal the dirt below before packing it back down.

PHOTO GALLERY: KOAH SHARPE SURVIVES BEING BURIED ALIVE

It’s a harsh place for a baby.

Koon said the towel around the crate helped create an air pocket that allowed Koah to survive for about 24 hours.

And the cold weather likely helped.

Cold temperatures can lower a person’s metabolic rate and help them survive longer with less air.

How it unfolded

Authorities said the boy had been in the care of Comer’s mother on Monday. She left to run an errand, with another caregiver on the way.

“By the time the caregiver got there, Michael was gone, and Koah was gone with him,” Koon said.

Comer was seen with his son at 11 a.m.

By 3 p.m., a relative filed a missing-person report.

Authorities said Comer went to several locations on Monday even though he didn’t have a car. That posed a problem in trying to figure out where the boy might be.

“We found some video ... of Michael in and around Batesburg-Leesville with no baby,” Koon said. “So certainly, we got worried, hoping and praying that he dropped the baby with another person. As the day went on and nobody came forward, it was certainly more and more concerning.”

At 10:30 p.m., Comer was found − without Koah − in a shed that didn’t belong to him.

Authorities arrested him on a burglary charge in what wasn’t his first scrape with the law.

A month earlier, he’d been placed on probation after a guilty plea for aggravated breach of peace. Court records also showed he’d been arrested for domestic violence and a weapons-related count earlier this year.

On Tuesday as the search went on, something told authorities to go back to the area near where Comer’s father lived.

One of the 100 searchers noticed a disturbed section of ground.

It hadn’t been that way the day before.

Crime scene technicians started probing the ground.

“You could hear little Koah crying,” Koon said.

“As you can imagine, the race was on. Everybody’s getting down there trying to get him out.”

The child was taken to a hospital around 2 p.m. Tuesday.

It’s a story that could have ended much differently.

But this one time, it didn’t.

“Hopefully, at 11 months old, he will not remember much of this as he grows older,” Koon said, “just to have a great, inspiring story to tell.”

Koah has much to thank:

• The massive response from law enforcement.
• The searcher who noticed the disturbed ground.
• The cool weather that likely slowed his metabolism.
• The towel that created the air pocket.

But there may have been something else working in Koah’s favor.

“God is good,” Koon said Tuesday. “Today is about thanking the good Lord that the baby is still with us.”