Muddy footprint leads searchers to find missing 6-year-old

More than 300 volunteers on foot and horseback, as well as several law enforcement agencies, took part in an around-the-clock search for the child. A missing 6-year-old was found safe after going missing for about two days in rural eastern Kentucky earlier this week. For two days, hundreds of searchers scoured rugged terrain looking for Roman Heilman, who has autism and had last been seen Sunday afternoon near his home in the small town of Louisa wearing a plaid green jacket and Crocs. It was not immediately clear how the boy initially went missing or who reported it. Travis Hughes, the Lawrence County emergency management director, told CBS News that Heilman was known to play outside and explore the woods.

More than 300 volunteers on foot and horseback — as well as specialized units from Kentucky State Police and the Kentucky National Guard and search-and-rescue crews from West Virginia and Ohio — combed the heavily wooded area around the clock while helicopters and drones searched from above. They eventually found a muddy footprint that led them to Heilman's clothes, including a jacket, pants and a diaper, Hughes told CBS News. "We knew this child was without clothes and we knew there was weather moving in, raining," Hughes said. "So we wanted to put our horseback teams in there with the