The search for Jacob

Hundreds converged on a cornfield in Greene Township.
Emergency workers from six counties were called in to help.
Planes and helicopters flew overhead.
There was a massive search for a lost 2-year-old boy, who had run naked into a cornfield as the family was heading into their home to take cover from an incoming storm.
On the 10-year anniversary of the day when he was found about 2:20 a.m. curled up asleep with the family dog, Jacob Conley recalls little from the incident.
He said he remembers going into the cornfield near his home at 1580 N. 650 West and falling asleep with the dog, “Silly.”
The pair moved several times, he said, “And then flashlights got shoved in my face. And then I don’t remember very much after that.”
Jacob, now 12 and heading into seventh grade at East Jay Middle School, was lost for approximately 12 hours.
It was about 3 p.m. June 24, 2004, when a storm came rolling in and Lisa Fischer and her six sons decided to seek shelter in the house. But when they got there, Jacob wasn’t with them.
The family attempted to locate the boy by themselves, running through the head-high corn that bordered the house on three sides and climbing silos to try to get a better view. But eventually they called the police for help.
Jay County Sheriff’s Office led the search with help from police, firefighters and other emergencies workers from Jay, Blackford, Delaware, Wells, Adams and Randolph counties, the Department of Natural Resources and the Redkey Post of the Indiana State Police. And friends, neighbors and other volunteers joined in to create a search party that numbered in the hundreds.
“There is hope out there. There are good people,” said Fischer, recalling the effort. “I was just amazed, absolutely amazed.”
“We’re very thankful to the ones who were involved.”
The search included not only those on the ground, but planes and helicopters looking from above as well. Matt Tarter, the sheriff’s deputy who was first on the scene that day, scanned the cornfield from overhead with help from pilot Dave Miller of Portland-based Miller Aviation.
“We were flying over those rows just as low and slow as we could without letting the plane drop out of the sky,” Tarter said. “That whole square mile, there were people everywhere. That’s what I remember as much as anything else.”
But they all came up empty.
Two sweeps of the cornfield brought no results. And the flights, which included use of infrared devices, were just as fruitless.
As the minutes and hours ticked away, passing midnight, those involved in the search began to wonder about the child’s fate — whether an animal might have attacked him or if his body could withstand the conditions as temperatures dipped into the 50s following several storms.
“Usually when you get a call that a child is missing or something, they’re usually found relatively quickly,” said Todd Penrod, then Jay County Sheriff. “We got very concerned for the safety and well being of the child.”
The decision was made to walk the field one more time, with searchers shoulder-to-shoulder, before calling off the effort for the night.
Emergency personnel and volunteers lined up along county road 150 North and began their half-mile trek to the north through the rain-soaked field. As some of the search party emerged empty-handed at county road 200 North and began heading back toward the house, the call came over the two-way radio: “We’ve got him.”
Shane Minnich, one of the many volunteers, had stumbled upon Jacob, curled up, asleep, with his dog.
The boy was covered in mosquito bites and scratches, and his core body temperature had dipped to 92 degrees. But he was released after just a few of hours in the emergency room at Jay County Hospital.
By the next day, Jacob was oblivious to the situation as he ate Honeycomb cereal and played peek-a-boo with his brothers.
And though a year after the incident Fischer said her son routinely experienced nightmares and had a fear of storms, he seems entirely unaffected now. He said he’s not afraid of thunder or lightning, and he doesn’t cringe at the site of corn stalks reaching toward the sky.
“I think it’s made him who he is today,” said Fischer, clearly proud of her youngest son. “I think it’s made him a stronger being that he survived something like that.”
Jacob loves sports, identifying basketball as his favorite as he carries a blue and yellow ball under his arm. He played for the EJMS sixth grade squad last year, and hopes to make the seventh grade team this year.
He also enjoys singing, having been part of the school choir.
And he talks with pride about earning all A and B grades on his report card, for which his grandfather provided a $10 reward.
Though he remembers little from his ordeal, he’s taken a lesson from it as he’s heard the story of the massive search retold over the years.
“People care,” he said. “I mean, I’m just one person.”[[In-content Ad]]