Toddler survives night in snow
04/07/2007 08:36 - (SA)

Riette Olivier, Die Burger

Jansenville - A toddler who walked after his deaf grandfather, without the grandfather realising it, wandered off by himself and got lost on farmland near Jansenville in the Eastern Cape in the middle of winter.

The two-year-old climbed over two barbed-wire fences and spent a night in the freezing cold, but all that he retained after his nasty experience was a bit of a cold.

The parents of Ronaldo Spogter, 2, only noticed what had happened when his grandfather arrived at their house on the farm Boskloof at 13:00 on June 26.

Wena Theron, police spokesperson, said "family members scattered in all directions to search for him, but without success. At 16:00 he was reported missing at the police station."

The police had to call off their search for the day at 19:30.

"By that time it was terribly cold, and it was raining hard. It was also too dark to seen anything."

The dog unit was called in to assist on the following day, leading to Ronaldo's tracks and pieces of his clothing being found on a neighbouring farm.

A police officer who was involved said by that time they had lost hope of finding the child alive.

"It had snowed heavily that night and it was freezing outside."

But the police kept searching and in the hope that the toddler could be near his clothes, they called out his name.

Ronaldo responded to his name, and at about 11:00 that morning he was found on a rock, about 10km from his parents' home, after having climbed over the fences of two other farms.

Police described finding him alive as a miracle.

"He left home wearing one shoe, and later lost the other one and even his pants. But when we found him his body (temperature) was still warm," said the officer who was at the scene.