Page 30 - bon-dia-aruba-20200330

A30 FEATURE
Monday 30 March 2020
A missing boy and a freezing swamp test tracker's instincts

By TODD RICHMOND boat had run into some
Associated Press trees. The boy had been in
EDGERTON, Wis. (AP) — the swamp for more than
Austin Schumacher parked an hour. Doubts began to
his unmarked squad truck creep into Schumacher's
and watched pheasant mind. Overhead, a sheriff's
hunters work their way into drone broadcast the voic-
the woods under the over- es of the boy's parents.
cast, late-fall sky. The rook- Come out, they said. Don't
ie Department of Natural be scared. It will be all right.
Resources warden had just Galvanized, Schumacher
popped the lid of his salad pushed on. He reached the
container when the radio edge of swamp and stood
squawked: a 13-year-old looking out at a tree line
boy, missing. bordering a bean field. He
The boy had run away caught a flash of maroon.
from Edgerton Middle He pulled out his binoculars
School after a dispute with and saw the boy curled
his teachers — he swore up under a tree, T-shirt and
pants soaked, his hands,
feet and legs bloody.
He crept up to him, not
In this March 5, 2020 photo, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Warden Austin Schumacher wanting to scare him off.
stands on the edge of a marsh in Edgerton, Wis., where a 13-year-old boy disappeared after The frigid boy was shaking
running away from school in November 2019. so much he could barely
Associated Press. talk.
at them before he ducked plow through them. Every- young warden crossed the ___
out of the school and thing in nature is vertical stream. The waist-deep wa- Schumacher stripped
headed into the swamp as it tries to reach the sun; ter filled his waders, soaking down to his T-shirt and
across the street. Principal if you see something hori- his shoes, his pants, his pis- dressed the boy in his coat
Clark Bretthauser tried to zontal, like a branch on the tol. and stocking cap. The boy
follow, but lost him in the ground, chances are hu- He climbed up the other asked him if people would
mucky underbrush. mans were there. side, dripping. He started be mad at him for running
The boy was clad only in a It was a lesson much on looking for broken brush away. His body numb, he
T-shirt and sweatpants. The Schumacher's mind a little and branches, backtrack- could not walk.
temperature was 39 de- after 3 p.m. on Nov. 1, as ing, moving forward, back- Schumacher checked
grees Fahrenheit (3.89 de- he rolled into Edgerton, a tracking again, sometimes maps on his phone, looking
grees Celsius) and falling as city of about 5,000 people crawling to get under tree for a way out, and found a
the sun dipped toward the 25 miles (40 kilometers) branches. road about a mile (1.6 kilo-
horizon; forecasts called for south of Madison, the state The temperature had meters) south. He lifted the
a snowstorm at nightfall. capitol. A search team had dropped to 37 degrees boy onto his back. The boy
Schumacher put down his set off through the swamps (2.78 Celsius). The snow was wrapped his legs around
salad, flipped on his lights to the northwest, the last closing in. Schumacher's waist, his
and sirens and headed for direction the boy was seen ___ arms around his shoulders.
Edgerton. heading. At last Schumacher, now Schumacher began to
___ But Schumacher's instincts caked with mud, picked walk.
Schumacher is 25. Growing told him to go another way. up a trail of tracks left by Schumacher had been a
up in southern Wisconsin, He wanted to start where a barefoot person, small basketball player in high
he fly fished and hunted the boy had started in prints with five little toes. school and is still trim and
"pretty much everything" — hopes of understanding his Further on he discovered fit, a wiry 6-feet (1.83 me-
including deer with a mus- thinking. Alone, he circled one of the boy's shoes, then ters) tall. But nothing had
ket. Inspired by an uncle the school grounds looking his socks. Schumacher fig- prepared him for this. The
who worked as a police of- for signs and discovered a ured they'd gotten so wet 90-pound (41-kilogram)
ficer, he majored in criminal path leading into the marsh the boy had thrown them boy and his 20 pounds (9
justice at Madison's Edge- directly across the street. away. kilograms) of equipment
wood College. A post- He put on his hip wad- He followed the footprints weighed him down like an
graduation ride-along with ers, followed the path into for about 2 miles (3 kilome- anvil. Again and again, he
a DNR warden showed him the swamp and came to ters), testing the ground in fell in the uneven terrain.
the way to a job that would Saunders Creek, a roiling front of him with a stick to He radioed in his position,
combine police work with 20-foot-wide (6-meter- assess its stability. Schum- heard the search teams dis-
his love for the outdoors. wide) stream clogged with acher had barely eaten or patch an ATV only to have
He spent two months train- deadfalls. He moved north drank anything all day; as it get stuck in the mud. The
ing in the backwoods of up the streambank, search- the sun began to set he felt sheriff's drone watched si-
northern Wisconsin, learn- ing for a spot where the himself growing weaker. lently from above.
ing to track people in the boy might have crossed. He came to a series of re- Darkness was closing in.
wilderness without the aid Eventually he discovered tention ponds and his heart He kept trying to talk to
of technology. shoeprints in the mud and sank. He poked along their the boy, asking him about
The most important lesson: marks on the far bank. This edges, praying he wouldn't his favorite superheroes
Humans are lazy creatures. was where the boy had find the boy's body. None and video games. He was
Animals will crawl under or crossed. of the other searchers were sweating now, the moisture
go around obstacles. Peo- Holding his equipment vest faring any better; radio evaporating and chilling
ple will push them aside or as high as he could, the traffic noted that a search him even more.q