Searchers Find 4-Year-Old, Safe, After 22 Hours in Forest

About 50 members of a search-and-rescue team combed through the Sierra National Forest looking for a 4-year-old California boy who had wandered away from his family's campsite, shouting his name. On Friday, roughly 22 hours after he went missing, Christian Ramirez answered them, per CNN. Tulare County sheriff's officials reported he was found sitting under a tree, tired and hungry but in good condition. "We got him a sandwich and then carried him out to be reunited with Mom and Dad," officials posted Saturday on Facebook, per the AP.

Officials said the three-foot-tall, 40-pound boy, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, "hunkered down" for the night under the tree about a quarter-mile from his family's campsite in the Rancheria Campground in the dense forest at Huntington Lake. The search employed dogs and helicopters after his family reported Christian missing about 11am Thursday. Officials say the boy wandered away and lost his sense of direction. "In a matter of less than five minutes, he just disappeared," a sheriff's official said. (More California stories.)