South Carolina baby goes missing for over 24 hours, then police hear crying coming from a pile of dirt, ‘the race was on’

An 11-month-old boy in South Carolina who went missing for over 24 hours after being left in his father’s care has been found. Where police discovered him came as a shock, though; the infant, Koah Sharpe, was located in a dog crate wrapped in a towel that had been shallowly buried. According to People, in a press conference on November 10, 2026, Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon stated that the baby had been found “buried alive, clinging to life, crying.”

Baby Sharpe’s grandmother, per WISTV, reportedly left the child in the care of his father, Michael Comer, on November 9. By the time another caregiver came to take over, both Comer and the infant were missing. Comer was eventually found without the baby that evening when he was arrested on a burglary charge. He is expected to face further charges.

The infant was allegedly buried for over a day

After the caregiver arrived and found Comer and Baby Sharpe missing, police were called. They visited Comer’s father, who lived nearby, and found baby items but no baby or Comer.

Authorities believe 25-year-old Comer visited multiple locations in town, but because he didn’t have a car of his own, he asked for rides everywhere. That made it impossible to issue an Amber Alert, as Koon said, “To be able to issue an Amber Alert, you have to have a known description of a car and a license plate to put that out.”

Finally, when police searched near Comer’s father’s house, they noticed “freshly disturbed dirt” and pine straw, then heard the baby’s cries. Koon reportedly explained, “So as you imagine, the race was on. Everybody’s getting down there trying to get him out.”

Koon credited the colder weather for helping the infant survive. He reportedly stated, “A lot of things were going in Koah’s favor, and the good lord looked down on him in the last 24 hours, and hopefully, at 11 months old, he will not remember much of this as he grows older and just to have a great inspiring story to tell.”

Filicide is more common than one might believe

Filicide, particularly infanticide, is a rare occurrence. However, in the study “Innocence Interrupted: A 25-Year Study of Reported Filicide Incidents in the United States, 1999 to 2023,” researchers reported that while rare, in the United States, infanticide rates are “[…] elevated at 8.1 per 100,000, more than double the global average of 3.5.” Many times when it comes to parents killing children, particularly infants, the offender is the mother, such as in the case of Lindsay Clancy. The study found, though, that while female offenders often commit infanticide, 65.2% of offenders were male.

What causes parents to kill (or attempt to kill in this case) their children depends on the person, but the study reported that intrafamily conflicts often played a role, as did mental health struggles. When Koon spoke at the press conference, he explained that no motive had been found for Comer’s actions just yet, but that “the mother, child, and him have had some situations.”

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