Toddler left camper as parents slept, spent night walking forest, Maine rescuers say

A restless 2-year-old girl set off panic in a Maine campground when she left her parents’ camper in the middle of the night and was nowhere to be seen the next morning.

It happened Thursday, July 28, at the Jo Mary Lake Campground in Brownville, about 45 miles northwest of Bangor.

The toddler had been last seen around 2 a.m. “sleeping in her family’s camper,” according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife.

“When her family woke up around 7:00 a.m., she was missing, and the camper door was open,” the department said in a news release.

“After a quick initial search, her family immediately called 911, and game wardens, Piscataquis County Sheriff Officers, Maine forest rangers, Maine State Police and Maine Marine Patrol officers all converged at the campground to search for the toddler.”

The team was later expanded to include two Maine Warden Service planes, a forest service helicopter and a Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office drone, officials said.

It was during a grid-by-grid search of the immediate area that Game Warden Tyler Leach decided to check out a parking lot full boat trailers and ice fishing shacks, officials said.

“When he went around one of the ice shacks to check it, he looked over the stonewall that bordered the lot, and saw the child with her blanket dressed in flowered pajamas sitting on top of a brush pile at approximately 10:45 this morning,” officials said.

“Leach, who is a father, was able to talk to and comfort the toddler, who then reached out her arms to him, and let him pick her up. Leach then raced back to the campground carrying the child, and as he got closer was met by the parents running towards him and their daughter.”

The girl was identified as Blaklyn Greenleaf, daughter of Logan and Brady Greenleaf, according to Maine Association for Search And Rescue.

Rescuers believe she spent “most of the night in the woods.” However, Blaklyn showed no signs of injury and did not require medical attention, officials said

This story was originally published July 29, 2022 at 8:28 AM with the headline "Toddler left camper as parents slept, spent night walking forest, Maine rescuers say."