Parents Leave 3-Year-Old at Utah Corn Maze for 12 Hours Before Realizing He’s Missing

Although this happened in another state, we feel it could just as easily happen here if parents are inattentive or careless.

Salt Lake City's KUTV reports that a 3-year-old child was left behind at a 10-acre corn maze in West Jordan, Utah Monday night, and his parents say they didn't realize he was missing until nearly 12 hours later.

Sgt. Joe Monson with the West Jordan Police Department told KUTV it sounds as if the child lives in a household with multiple families and several other children. He said detectives are working to determine how the child could have been missing for so long without anyone noticing or reporting it until the next morning.

Kendall Schmidt, one of the owners of the Crazy Corn Maze, told KSTU-TV a woman found the child standing alone, cold, and crying in the maze and brought him out. Scmidt and other employees gave the boy candy and a blanket to help calm him down, then used a bullhorn to ask visitors if they were missing a child.

No one came forward.

According to Schmidt, a police officer placed the boy in her car and played the movie 'Finding Dory' for him while officers and staff searched for his parents.

It wasn't until around 8 AM Tuesday that the boy's parents called police. The boy was placed in the custody of the Division of Child and Family Services. As of Wednesday, the investigation continued and it was unclear if the boy was still in DCFS custody or had been returned to his family.