Eleven-month-old rescued alive from buried cage in South Carolina, authorities say

An eleven-month-old baby was rescued alive in South Carolina after being found inside a cage buried in woodland, according to the Lexington County Sheriff's Department. Authorities allege that the child's father was responsible. The baby was taken to hospital for treatment after being found in very poor condition.

The child had been missing since Monday, when the twenty-five-year-old father took the baby away from the mother's home. Sheriff Jay Koon said the mother had care of the child and had left the baby alone briefly when the father arrived and took the child.

The father was arrested on Monday evening in connection with a theft case, but the baby was not with him. Investigators found that he had visited several places without the child. When he was subsequently in custody in Lexington County, the child remained unaccounted for.

A search involving about one hundred police and fire-service personnel was organised. Koon said the father did not provide information about where the child was when officers asked him. The search continued in woodland close to his home.

On Tuesday, rescuers noticed patches of freshly disturbed soil near the father's house. As they began digging, they heard a baby crying. The sheriff described that cry as a moment of immense relief, after which the team concentrated on getting the child out safely.

Koon estimated that the cage was about two feet long and two feet wide. He said he believed it had been placed in the ground and covered with at least a foot of soil. The account identifies it as a dog cage. Those measurements and the description of how it was covered are the sheriff's assessment.

Officials believe the baby may have been there for roughly twenty-four hours. That is an estimate of the period in the buried cage, not a confirmed minute-by-minute timeline. The child was in a very serious state when found, but Koon said he hoped for a full recovery as hospital treatment continued.

Family circumstances described by investigators and a relative

The sheriff said there were clearly difficulties in the relationship between the parents. Court documents cited in the account show that the father had previously pleaded guilty to domestic-violence charges. That earlier court history is separate from the present allegations about what happened to the baby.

The father's mother said the child's mother held full custody. She said she normally supervised occasions when her son spent time with the baby, although he had also looked after the child without supervision before and, according to her, there had been no problem on those occasions.

She expressed shock at the allegation, saying she had never imagined that her son could do something like this. Her response gives a relative's perspective; it does not settle the investigation. The child's rescue and treatment are confirmed in the sheriff's account, while responsibility for the alleged burial remains a matter for the authorities and the courts.