The events that placed eleven-month-old Koah Sharpe beneath a foot of South Carolina soil began on the morning of Monday, November 9, 2026, in the Batesburg-Leesville area of Lexington County. The infant was in the care of his paternal grandmother, Patricia Comer, when his father, Michael Comer, arrived at the residence. The grandmother left Koah with his father so she could run an errand while another caregiver was expected to arrive. When that person reached the home, both Michael Comer and the baby had disappeared. Family members reported the child missing that afternoon, and deputies responded to the nearby house of Comer’s father on Parthenon Road, where they found doors open and baby items inside but no sign of either individual.

By late Monday evening, investigators had located Comer inside an outbuilding at a property off Columbia Avenue in Batesburg. He was arrested on burglary and resisting-arrest charges. Koah was not with him. Security footage from earlier in the day showed Comer moving through the Batesburg-Leesville area without the infant, heightening concerns that the child had already been left somewhere else. Because Comer had no vehicle and authorities lacked a description or license plate, no Amber Alert was issued. The search continued through the night and into Tuesday with participation from nearly one hundred personnel, including the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, SLED, the FBI’s Columbia office, ATF, multiple local police and fire departments, and emergency medical services.

On Tuesday afternoon, between roughly 1:30 and 2:00 p.m., searchers examining the woods approximately fifty yards from the grandfather’s home noticed an area covered with pine straw and freshly disturbed dirt. As they began to probe and dig, they heard the baby crying. The race to uncover him was immediate. Rescuers pulled Koah from a roughly two-by-two-foot wire dog crate that had been wrapped in a towel and buried under about a foot of soil. He was screaming and was quickly transferred to a hospital. Sheriff Jay Koon later stated that the towel most likely created an air pocket and that cool overnight temperatures may have further aided survival during the estimated twenty-four hours the child spent underground.

Koah was released from the hospital on Tuesday night and returned to the care of family members. Officials described him as expected to make a full recovery. The following day, prosecutors filed additional charges against Michael Comer: attempted murder, unlawful conduct toward a child, and custodial interference, in addition to the original burglary count. Comer remained in custody, and a bond hearing was scheduled. Investigators have stated that they continue to examine the exact sequence of events after the pair left the grandmother’s residence and that no definitive motive has been publicly identified, although prior domestic issues between Comer and the child’s mother have been noted in reporting.

The case has drawn attention in part because of the narrow margin by which the infant survived and the scale of the multi-agency response that ultimately located him. Local officials have emphasized the role of persistent ground searching once the initial focus shifted to the wooded property connected to the father’s family. While the criminal proceedings move forward, the central public fact remains that an eleven-month-old who had been missing for roughly a day was found alive and has since been discharged from medical care.