For many parents, their biggest fear is that their child goes missing. That’s why parents have rules like telling a parent before going outside and staying close while at a store, amusement park or other crowded location. Unfortunately, children don’t always listen to their parents. They may be distracted by something else that they think is more important that following the rules their parents make.

Sometimes children wander away from their parents or their home. Then, after they’ve had their fun exploring, they turn around and realize they don’t know how to get back home and they don’t see their parents anywhere. Meanwhile, the family of the missing child is probably frantic at this point.

They would most likely alert the police and start searching for their child themselves, praying that their child is found before it’s too late. New York State Trooper Brian Hotchkiss didn’t know that his day at work would involve searching for a missing child, but when the call came in to the Ontario County Sheriff’s Office that a 2-year-old girl had gone missing from her home, he jumped in to help with the search and rescue efforts.

At the beginning of the search, Hotchkiss and other officers knocked on doors of neighbors thinking the girl may have wandered over to a neighbor’s house or perhaps a neighbor saw where she went. As it got later in the day and the neighbors didn’t have any information about the missing 2-year-old, Hotchkiss knew they would have to try a different approach. He was worried that she was outside somewhere, and he knew it was going to get dark and cold in the near future.

Close to the missing girl’s house, there was a mountain with woods and streams. Hotchkiss decided to climb to the top of the mountain so that he would have a better view of the surrounding area. He hoped that he would be able to see where the missing child was if she happened to be in the woods somewhere. At first, when Hotchkiss climbed to the top of the mountain and looked down, he just saw green and brown trees. But then he spotted a pink dot. He knew that the missing child was wearing a pink shirt, so he headed in the direction of the pink dot. He quickly realized that it was in fact the missing 2-year-old.