Oologah Lake Rescue
Two-Year Old Reunited With Family

A rigorous search ended successfully last week when a missing two-year old girl was reunited with her family after being missing for nearly eight hours in the hot August sun.

Sakira Thomas, 2, had been camping with her family at the Hawthorne Bluff area of Lake Oologah.  Sakira's dad and brothers had gone fishing in the early morning hours of August 3rd.  Sakira and her mother were sleeping at the campsite inside of a zipped tent and Sakira's father would periodically check on the girls but shortly after 3 AM his worst fears came to life when he checked on them and found his daughter missing.

The Rogers County Sheriff's Office was called and a massive search began for the child.  RCSO contacted Bob Anderson with  Rogers County Emergency Management and a command center was established near the campsite which was supplied with water and food by the American Red Cross and a large donation of water from Tacora Mart, a local store.

Aproximately one-hundred searchers from numerous agencies became involved in the search and were assisted by some rather high-tech support from A Child is Missing, Inc, based out of Florida.

A Child Is Missing (ACIM) had recently conducted a training session in the Claremore area which was attended by mane area law enforcement agencies including the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office.  ACIM immediately sent out thousands of telephone calls to a perimeter area surrounding Oologah Lake.

"The response was phenomenal," said Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton, "the level of willingness when a child's safety is at stake is a powerful thing," he said.  Searchers from near and far arrived on the scene to lend a hand as calls flooded the telephone lines at the Sheriff's Office dispatch center from concerned residents wanting to help.

As helicopters flew overhead and divers searched below the water scores of searchers walked through the wooded area hoping to find the child.  As the hours waned on, however, hopes began to dwindle that the child would be found safely. 

Enter the cowboys...

Chub and Chaz Brewer are local cowboys.  They're not the kind that buy a hat and say they're cowboys; they're the real deal.  "These are the kind of 'good ol boys' that we need more of," said Walton.

Mr. Brewer was at work when he heard that a child was missing.  He went home, saddled up and rode out.  Along with his son, Chaz, the two began searching on horseback in areas where the search parties had not been to. 

Shortly after 10 AM the two men pulled their horses into a shaded area when Chaz heard a voice of a little girl saying, "Daddy."  Sakira Thomas was alive and now she was safe.

As the word was broadcast over the police radios a jubilant feeling swept through the command center.  "It was amazing," said Undersheriff Tom Harrison.  "There's no other way to describe the joy everyone was feeling.  I think it's what everyone in emergency services lives for - moments like that one," he said.

The hopes for a miracle had come to fruition.  "More often than not, these things end in tragedy," said Walton, "but by the grace of God and the dedication of a lot of hard working people, this child was rescued.  We needed a miracle and God delivered one to us."

"I don't think the Brewers really consider themselves heroes," Walton said, "they're the kind of people who aren't looking for glory or recognition, they just saw a need and filled it.  Nobody asked them to and nobody needed to;  they care about people and don't need to be asked to help," he said.  "If they don't want to consider themselves heroes, that's okay, they're heroes in my book anyway."

When Sakira was found the August summer sun and the landscape had taken its toll.  She was dehydrated, scratched from the high grass and had stickers stuck in her hair but she was smiling.

"We were astonished at where she was," said Walton.  The little girl had not only wandered away from the campgrounds, she had made it out of the park, across highway 88, past the Lake Office and out to a pond in the woods. 

The search perimeter was focused on the area adjacent to the Hawthorne Bluff campgrounds.  "Had it not been for the Brewers searching in that area on their own, I'm scared to think of what the outcome could have been," said Mike McElhaney, a Sheriff's Office captain.  "I am so thankful to everyone who came out here to lend a hand.  This rescue couldn't have been done without them," the captain said.

Paramedics from the OTEMS ambulance service checked the child out, loaded her parents and took them to Claremore Regional Hospital where she was treated for the dehydration and scratches. 

"I'll be thanking them for the rest of my life," said Sakira's mother, Sarah Thomas, of the rescuers.