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SOUTH OGDEN — A 2-year-old girl was found walking alone near an intersection about 1 a.m. Tuesday.
Police were able to find the girl's parents after about 10 ½ hours of searching. But the girl remained in the custody of the Division of Child and Family Services as of Tuesday afternoon pending further investigation.
The incident began about 1:15 a.m. when a motorist spotted the child in her pajamas in a residential area at the intersection of 40th Street and Madison Avenue, said South Ogden Police Sgt. Trent Olsen. The child was in good condition when she was found, he said.
Police who responded to the scene were unable to find the girl's home, so DCFS was contacted and took custody of the young girl, Olsen said.
Later that morning, South Ogden police made an intensive sweep through the neighborhood to find the girl's home.
"We had detectives, patrolmen, supervisors — we had everybody out acting in what we call a grid pattern of knocking on doors and trying to find out where this child needed to be or where she came from," Olsen said.
Just before noon, a man came out of his house right at the time a detective happened to be near his residence.
"He kind of had that panicked look on his face. We asked him what he needed. He said he was trying to find his child. We showed him a picture and it ended up being his daughter," Olsen said.
The father told police that both he and his wife work swing shifts and went to bed around midnight. They didn't get up until a few minutes before running into the police officer.
The father told detectives that his daughter "is able to turn the doorknob to the door."
The girl has both an older and younger sibling, who also didn't hear her walk out.
Olsen said the police department and DCFS officials continued to investigate the case as of Tuesday afternoon.
Contributing: Ladd Egan
