This news story was updated at 9:57 a.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A search that began last night for a 10-year-old girl in Silver Creek ended early this morning when deputies discovered she had fallen down a steep bank near her home on Mayfield Lake.
The child, whose name was not released, was cold but suffered only minor scratches and has been reunited with her family, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
She was found about 5:30 a.m. at the edge of the lake, where she had spent the night, according to a news release. She was lucky, as she was wearing two coats and the weather overnight was mild, Sheriff Steve Mansfield said in the news release.
Deputies called just before 9 o’clock last night to the Silver Creek home were told the child had last been seen about 7 p.m. outside in her yard, according to the news release.
A search of the neighborhood and a wooded area around the home, into the night, which including using two search dogs, was unsuccessful, according to the sheriff’s office.
The home is on the 100 block of Crater View Drive, just west of Mayfield Lake.
Additional deputies arrived about 5 a.m. to continue looking and a noise was heard, leading to voice contact with the girl at about 5:30 a.m., the news release stated.
The news release continues on to say:
Deputies climbed down an extremely steep bank and a local fishing guide brought his boat to pick her up.
The girl said she had been walking too close to the bank and slipped and fell over the edge. She couldn’t climb back up, so she continued approximately 300 yards to the edge of the lake.
“This is one of those incidents where time and the weather are working against you and the intense coordinated search effort paid off,” Mansfield said in the news release.