Bienville Parish Deputy Sheriff Jeremy Gros with Peyton after she was found safe in a densely wooded area near Sand Plant Rd. (Credit: Webster Parish Sheriff's Office Facebook page)
Prayers were answered in Webster Parish as a girl who disappeared from her home was found safe.
Crews spent all day searching for Peyton Saintignan, 10, who was last seen Saturday night as she went to bed inside her Dubberly home.
Her parents woke up the next morning and discovered her missing.
“She has a history of sleepwalking and going to the garden,” says Webster Parish Sheriff Jason Parker. “She’s never left the house. So we don’t know to what extent — maybe she left out and then she was lost and started walking.”
The response by law enforcement and volunteers was tremendous.
“I would say there was at least 200 out at the scene,” says Sheriff Parker.
Authorities were able to put out a picture of Peyton after she was spotted on a trail cam Sunday morning.
“Somebody had gotten a picture of her on their trail cam — a photo of her walking. So we knew that she was without any water, food, backpack, anything like that,” says Parker. “That trail cam photo was probably a mile (to a) mile and a half where she walked away from home.”
Along with hundreds of volunteers, the search party consisted of various police department, sheriff’s offices and fire departments, along with a correctional search dog team and the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
The big break came when a private company located the somnambulant girl with a drone.
Drone pilots from Drone Management Services LLC of Magnolia, Arkansas, found the girl asleep in a wooded area.
At around 11:00 p.m. Sunday night, searchers found her safe.
“She had mentioned hearing some drones and maybe the helicopter flying over,” says Parker. “And she had said she had seen some folks driving by … but she was just scared, she didn’t know who they were.”
EMS checked Peyton out and she was fine, albeit hungry.
She is now back home with her family.
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