Searchers used drone playing mum’s voice in bid to find missing 3yo

The massive search for a boy who went missing in dense bushland in Western Australias south on the weekend was made more difficult by heavy rain, hail and perilous terrain, but his grandfathers persistence paid off. James “Jimmy” O’Reilly was playing with his family’s dogs outside a holiday house on Karli Rise in the picturesque surfing town of Yallingup about 7.30am on Saturday when his mother popped inside to tend to her younger child.
When she emerged, the youngster had wandered off, wearing only Spiderman pyjamas and gumboots.
Panicking, she frantically looked for him, but he was nowhere to be seen.
The massive, desperate search that then unfolded involved police officers and State Emergency Service volunteers on foot, mounted police, sniffer dogs, a helicopter and an army of locals who wanted to help, although there were concerns they would trample clues.
Even a drone was used to fly over the thick forest canopy and play an audio recording of Jimmy’s distressed mother.
“Hi James, it’s mummy,” she said.
“If you can see something flying in the air above you and it’s got flashing red and blue lights, you need to follow it, OK? Then you can find your way home.”
Miraculously — almost 12 hours after he vanished and about 45 minutes after the sun had set — Jimmy was found by his grandad, who had rushed to the southwest town from Perth with other family members.
The boy was about 1km from the Airbnb property in a firebreak area that had already been searched during the day, crying, upset and hungry but happy to see familiar faces.
South West District Office Inspector Martin Voyez said searchers knew they had to act fast and get inside the mind of a three-year-old.
“Our first concern is, we’ve got to get ourselves organised, organised quickly then map out where we’re going to go and why we’re going to go there, thinking, if we could, what would little Jimmy do?” Insp Voyez told 6PR radio on Monday.
“It’s cold, it’s raining, how far is he going to go? How far should we go?
“There’s a lot of history for these sorts of things of course so we rely on that, predicting what a person’s likely to do.”
Insp Voyez said Jimmy, who turns four in November, would have slept and stayed put once he realised he was lost, not knowing what else to do.
A cheer went up – not just among searchers but around the state – as news broke he had been found.
“It’s just fantastic,” Insp Voyez said.
“I’m sure his parents are going to keep a very close rein on him from now on.”