Missing Boy, 10, Found Alive

A 10-year-old boy who disappeared while hiking with family in eastern Utah has been found alive more than 24 hours after he got lost while looking for mushrooms near a remote mountain lake. Malachi Bradley survived by curling up between some rocks as temperatures as dipped into the upper 30s overnight, Uintah County Sheriff Vance Norton said. The boy wrapped his T-shirt around his legs and huddled in his jacket to keep warm in the remote area near the Wyoming border. Malachi was spotted by a rescue plane this afternoon and picked up by a police helicopter, Norton said. He was cold and hungry but otherwise healthy. "He's actually in great shape," said Norton, but the weather is expected to be worse tonight. "We're just happy we got him when we did."

Before he was found, Malachi's aunt told the Deseret News, "Just a week ago he was camping and he and a friend were playing what would we do if we got lost. And they were burying themselves in leafs, they were building lean-tos. They were doing all the things you'd want them to do if you were lost." His family said the boy had been taught survival skills by his father. Norton thanked the more than 100 search and rescue workers as well as an airplane and helicopter that combed the rocky terrain, searching for any sign of motion and calling to the boy over a loudspeaker system. (More missing boy stories.)