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Home at last: missing baby Rainn found sleeping in Ohio field

Two-year-old Rainn Peterson disappeared from her great-grandparents house in northeast Ohio on Friday night.

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Ohio Attorney General's Office/AP
Rainn Peterson, shown in this undated photo, disappeared Friday night from her great-grandparents' house in North Bloomfield, Ohio. A volunteer found her sleeping in a field Sunday night.
  • By Lonnie Shekhtman Staff

Two-year-old Rainn Peterson, who had been missing all weekend from her great-grandparents house in Ohio, was found Sunday evening alive and well, sleeping in a nearby field.

A volunteer who was riding around in the field on his four-wheeler found her, telling 911 on the phone, "I found baby Rainn and she's alive!" She was immediately taken to the hospital for evaluation.

The field where she was found is about half a mile from where she had been reported missing on Friday, from her great-grandparents house in North Bloomfield. She was staying there with her two brothers, ages 3 and 4, while her mother, Brandi Peterson, was moving into an apartment.

Ms. Peterson said her grandmother was in the kitchen and the three children were with her grandfather in another area of the house when the toddler walked away.

"She's 2 years old and goes to strangers," Peterson told local NBC affiliate WFMJ-TV in Youngstown before her daughter was found. "She goes to anybody. She is just an innocent little girl."

According to Fox News in Cleveland, multiple agencies were involved in the search, including the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Trumbull County sheriff's office, the FBI, the Marshal's office, and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Searchers on horseback had combed the fields; a helicopter searched from above on Sunday in an area near the community of North Bloomfield, just north of Warren and Youngstown near the Pennsylvania state line.

Trumbull County Sheriff Thomas Altiere said he didn’t see any signs of foul play early on Sunday, before the toddler was found. Deputies had searched her family's home several times and had given polygraph tests to the toddler's relatives.

According to WKYC-TV, news that Rainn was found elicited thousands of comments on Facebook from people “gushing their thanks and happiness that Rainn is safe.”

Though it’s a terrifying experience for parents and communities, according to a report from The Christian Science Monitor, the majority of missing children are recovered, even in cases where they are abducted.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children says 97 percent of the children reported to them are returned to their families, up from 62 percent in 1990.

This report includes material from the Associated Press.

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