Amber Alert Called Off After 3 Year-old is Returned Safely to Home
Published: May 29, 2005
A 3 year-old boy is home after a 15-hour search. With help from law enforcement and the community, Holden Modlin is safely returned to family.
Holden went missing at 7 last night. Shortly thereafter, law enforcement responded. After searching for more than two hours to no avail, officials requested an Amber Alert, too many of which often end with bad news. But tonight, we have good news. The boy and his dog seemingly disappeared from playing outside his great grandmother`s home. Fifteen hours later, Holden was reunited with his family.
The trauma that had family thinking the worse…
“It was awful…completely awful,” Jaime Modlin, Holden`s mother, said.
“As the hours went by, you start to lose a little hope,” Suzie Modlin, Holden`s grandmother, said.
It was perhaps just an adventure for 3 year-old Holden. When asked what he did all night, he responded “I just played.”
At the time Holden went missing, his great grandmother, Bobby, was babysitting him at her home near Browning Lake.
KQ2 asked Holden if he was looking for someone when he left the yard last night. He said he was looking for Bobby or “Cookie Boo.”
“He calls me Cookie Boo. That`s his nickname for me,” Bobby Dawkins, Holden`s great grandmother, said.
Holden`s family said their black lab “Chief” didn`t let the boy out of sight, and Holden said Chief was with him all night.
With Chief missing too, Holden`s family had hope.
“It was good the dog was gone too, because I knew that if the dog came back and he wasn`t with him, then you know, I`d be way more upset because I know that the dog would protect him. He follows him around everywhere,” Jaime Modlin said.
Holden was found with just a couple of ticks and mosquito bites. So where did he go during the 15 hours rescue crews searched for him?
“He told us he slept in the basement, which we`re not quite sure what he`s talking about there, whether it was the culvert or a duck blind or what. And then the next time he said `well I slept over there in those trees. And of course Chief was his pillow,” Suzie Modlin said.
The 15 hour search ended at 10 a.m. when Holden`s great uncle, Jim Dawkins, spotted his nephew from along the river levy.
“He was just walking along the road in the field with Chief right behind him. When I saw him, he just started waving like it was no big deal,” Jim Dawkins, said.
Holden`s mom is ecstatic and thankful to have her son back. She says if it wasn`t for the help of law enforcement and even complete strangers, there may have been a different outcome than a happy ending.
More than 100 volunteers from surrounding counties poured into the Dawkins` home to lend their support.
“You just kinda put your hand out to help anyway you can, and when I found out he was only 3, I was shocked, but it didn`t matter how old he was, he needed to be found. I was just scared to death that he might have been in one of those lakes,” Robert Kearnes, volunteer, said.
And thankfully, he wasn`t. All`s well that end`s well.
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