Missing, But Not For Long Spirit Lake Girl Wanders Off On Six-Hour Adventure

There was a sheriff’s posse, a tracking dog and a chopper.

But it was a snowmobile-mounted searcher who finally found the 5-year-old girl lost in the woods near here Wednesday.

Jessica Hansen was playing outside her home at Spirit Lake East with her sisters when she wandered into the woods about 10 a.m.

When the snowmobiler found her about 4 p.m., she had walked more than a mile through woods and deep snow.

“Clear to Spirit Lake,” marveled Kootenai County sheriff’s Sgt. Brad Maskell once the news crackled over the radio. “Too cool … that’s a hoof for a 5-year-old.”

Her parents and searchers were terrified. Jessica has cerebral palsy. The trusting, curious girl isn’t afraid of anything, her mother said - and cougars have been harassing dogs in the area.

And most frightening of all, there have been reports of someone in nearby Athol trying to entice children into a car.

“I assumed somebody picked her up onto the road,” said a tearful Valerie Hansen, the girl’s mother.

Thirty people combed the frozen, hilly forest carved up by rocky mud roads. “I’ll be honest with you,” said mounted posse member Marvin Hass. “It was kind of shaky.”

Hass said searchers had a tough time seeing through the trees and rolling terrain. The woods near Jessica’s rural home still are smothered in three feet of snow.

Friends and family took small comfort in the fact Jessica was dressed in boots, snow pants and a warm sweatshirt.

It wasn’t like the girl to go off on her own. “The kids were out playing,” Hansen said. “Dad’s out of town. I think she went looking for Dad. She never wandered away before.”

At its most frenzied pitch, the Hansen house looked like something from a made-for-TV movie. A helicopter kicked up dust and rocks when it landed in the front yard. Sheriff’s cruisers were parked outside. Searchers rode past atop horses.

But when the girl arrived in the Spirit Lake police cruiser, it was all forgotten. Neighbors clapped. Mom cried.

“We prayed for six hours,” Hansen said. “I guess she can travel a lot farther than we thought.”

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