This amazing story happened in the winter in the town of Ernool in North Carolina, United States. A 3-year-old boy named Casey Hathaway was walking with friends in the yard of the house. The adults were distracted for a while, and then realized that the child was missing. They immediately reported it to the police. The local sheriff understood that in such weather the boy could freeze quite quickly, so he called for help from neighboring towns and formed a search party.
Local residents joined the search for the child, as well as volunteers from one rescue organization. A few hours later, help arrived: a team of dog handlers with dogs, divers, drone operators and even a rescue helicopter. They spent the whole day combing the forest in search of Casey, but their efforts were not crowned with success. The next day, the weather worsened noticeably, so the sheriff asked the volunteers to abandon the search for their own safety.
Despite the bad weather, professional rescuers and police continued the operation. On the second day, the boy was found. He got tangled in the bushes on a small island, so rescuers had to get to the child by water. No one understood how he could have ended up on this island. On the way home, the kid told the sheriff that he had made friends with a bear in the forest, which helped him survive these two days.
He told the same story to his family when he got home. The aunt believed the boy and in an interview expressed the idea that the Lord himself decided to help the child and sent him such a friend. The woman summed up her speech with the words «Miracles happen.»
There is indeed a fairly large population of black bears in the forests of North Carolina, but it is not known for certain whether one of them was near Casey or he was just a figment of a child’s imagination.
Chris Servin, an animal data expert who works at the University of Montana, said this is unlikely. Most likely, the boy came up with an image of a bear so that he would not be so scared in the forest. The fact is that black bears are very cautious and prefer to avoid people, even small ones. If a boy saw a bear, then either he was defending his territory or hunting, but in that case the boy would have been attacked. In all other cases, the bear would have simply smelled his scent and would not have approached.
The scientist also said that he was not trying to accuse the child of lying, but only anticipates the scenarios based on many years of experience in studying these animals. He also suggested that the boy may have a teddy bear with which he is comfortable falling asleep. Perhaps he remembered her in the forest, which caused his imagination to run wild.
