A missing 6-year-old was found sitting calmly in the Michigan woods four and a half hours after she vanished, and what led searchers to her was an alert from a private trail camera.
Payton Kagarise had finished her dinner and baked a cake at her great-grandparents’ home in Little Lake, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, when she asked to let the two family dogs out on the evening of Sept. 16.
Her great-grandmother Diana had already told her not to let them loose because they were not used to the road, and within minutes she and her husband were heading up the back hill after her.
“So he went out to call her, and by the time he got to the top of the hill, she was gone. Just gone,” Diana said.
The family searched the property, the road and the neighboring farm, then called 911 inside 10 minutes.
Dispatchers sent units to the intersection of County Road 456 and Setter Drive at about 8:25 p.m., and Forsyth Township police, fire and EMS were joined by Marquette County Sheriff’s Office K-9 teams, search and rescue crews and thermal drone units.
Michigan State Police added personnel from two posts, K-9 and drone operators from its Tactical Support Team, and air support from its aviation unit.
The break came hours in, when a family member got a cellular alert from a private trail camera about half a mile south of where Payton had disappeared, and the image confirmed she had moved through the dense woods.
Incident commanders pushed their teams toward Ski Hill Road, and crews reached her just before 12:15 a.m.
Marquette County Sheriff Greg Zyburt confirmed she came out in good condition, sitting alongside one of her two dogs, with the second recovered shortly afterward.
Trooper Aaron Griffin of the Michigan State Police was among the first to reach her.
“[She was] just sitting in the woods. Happy go lucky. She was not scared. I asked her if she was scared. She said, ‘Nope.’ She’s just a brave little girl,” Griffin said.
Her mother, Tiana Sicotte, says Payton went after the dogs because she did not want them to get lost.
“I bawled my eyes out and just held her,” Tiana said. “A lot of relief.”
