A local toddler is recovering “very well” in Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin Thursday after spending Tuesday night lost in the freezing rangeland about four miles south of Llano.

Llano County’s chief deputy John Neff said Owen Castle, a two-year-old boy who lives with his mother, wandered off Tuesday afternoon on the Otto Ranch, where the two are staying temporarily with best friend Jessica Graham.

Authorities found the boy the next morning in an adjacent pasture almost a mile away from the cabin where he and his mother were staying. Owen was cold and barely responsive—but alive.

Graham and Llano Police Chief James Schilling were two of the first people on the scene.

Schilling pulled open his coat and held the little boy to his body to warm him up while others piled coats over him.

“He was ice-cold and stiff,” Schilling said. “He started to whimper, and I said, ‘Cry! Cry! Cry with me.”

Owen was loaded into the DPS helicopter and flown to the helipad of Llano Memorial Hospital, where he was immediately transferred to an air ambulance and flown to Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin suffering from minor cuts and exposure.

The mother, a 24-year-old woman from Bertram whose identity is not being released, was distracted by a phone call about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday. She turned her back on Owen while he was playing outside for about three minutes—enough time for him to run off into the pasture.

Graham had come home from work sick that afternoon and was resting when Owen’s mother burst in nearly hysterical.

“She comes running in yelling, ‘Owen’s gone! Owen’s gone!’ and we started freaking out,” Graham said.

Owen’s mother called Llano County Deputy Sheriff Bryan Scoggins and State Trooper J.R. Long while Graham saddled up her horse to search the surrounding countryside.

Long and Scoggins were the first law enforcement to join the search, followed closely by more deputies, Llano Police Department officers, and Llano Volunteer firefighters. Eventually, personnel from the Texas Rangers, the Lower Colorado River Authority, the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office, Texas Parks and Wildlife, the K-9 Response Team from the Travis State Jail, Air Evac Lifeteam and Texas EquuSearch were combing the brush looking for Owen.

Long called DPS headquarters and requested a search helicopter equipped with Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) capabilities.

The ensuing search eventually involved almost 200 volunteers and first responders, helicopters, bloodhounds, and horses.

As the evening turned to night, word got around the community and volunteers streamed to the ranch to aid in the search on horseback and all terrain vehicles.

Sergeant Brad Evans was put in charge of coordinating the search.

“We were signing people in so we would know who was out there,” he said.

Evans’ task was no mean feat; he had to coordinate with multiple agencies and keep track of the civilian volunteers.

Long said that the helicopters and ground searchers worked hand-in-hand through the night.

“It was a solid search,” he said. “We constantly had aircraft coming and going. If the pilot saw a hot spot on his FLIR, he’d call to someone on the ground, ‘Hey, you with the backpack—raise your hand. Walk forward to that brush pile. What is it?’ If it was nothing, they’d say ‘10-4’ and go to the next spot.”

Eventually, the volunteers were sent home because of the cold and darkness and asked to come back first thing in the morning.

As the volunteers gathered early Wednesday morning, the party was stunned, then elated—the morning’s fresh DPS helicopter crew spotted Owen about 8 a.m. lying face-down on a large rock.

Neff said that the Llano County Sheriff’s Office is not pursuing any criminal charges, but policy requires any missing child incident to be reported to Child Protective Services for review.