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THE unbreakable resilience of a community has saved a little boy’s life.
Battling the cold and darkness, hundreds of good samaritans set on the dense bushland surrounding Johns River, near Taree to find little Tyler Kennedy.
After a 15-hour search that continued through the night, the missing two-year-old was reunited with his mum on Saturday morning at 1.15am.
Little Tyler was found soaking wet, visibly shaken and covered in scratches from head to toe.
His overwhelmed mother wrapped her arms around her son like he was a newborn child - telling him how much she loved him
“I don’t think he would have made it through the night if they hadn’t found him,” Ms Kennedy said. “He was just frozen and in shock.”
No words can express the appreciation Tyler’s mum Amanda Kennedy feels for every stranger who simply refused to give up on her boy.
“They said to me ‘We’re not going to stop until we find him’,and they didn’t.”
Ms Kennedy said the identity of Tyler’s rescuer still remains unknown.
“I would love to find that person and ask them how Tyler was. Was he crying? Was he calling for his mummy? I want to be able to thank them.”
The usually quiet, Wharf Road was likened to a highway as droves converged on the location where they had heard a little boy had gone missing.
SES volunteers, a police dog squad and helicopter were used in extensive efforts to locate Tyler during the day.
Tyler was suffering from a chest infection and had no more than a few spoonfuls of cereal for breakfast that day.
At 4.30pm police told his parents they would scale back the search due to poor lighting and other dangers.
“I couldn’t believe it when police told me they had called it off for the night - I wouldn’t.”
News Tyler had gone missing spread like wildfire through social media, and word of mouth.
“People started turning up by the car load from Kempsey, Wauchope, Taree, Newcastle, Wollongong - everywhere.”
Torches were purchased in bulk at Port Macquarie to equip the volunteers made-up of families, young children, individuals and couples.
“It melts my heart that so many people came out to help us. Words really can’t express how thankful we are,” Ms Kennedy said.
Tyler’s father Tim Henson and Ms Kennedy were picking up a pink slip for their car at a local auto-mechanics business when their son disappeared into the bush.
Ms Kennedy said he was “looking for flowers” with his four-year-old sister Isabella. After five minutes of not seeing him, alarm-bells rang for the mother of three.
Ms Kennedy described her child’s rescue as a “miracle”.
“We are just so lucky we have such an amazing community,” she said. “We never gave up on him, and neither did they.”
Tyler was released from Port Macquarie Hospital about 8.30am on Saturday.
His mum told the Port News yesterday he was struggling to sleep.
