DANVERS, Mass. -- Darkness and mosquitoes were descending when the teary Everett mother lost in the 7-acre Headless Horseman maze at Connors Farm dialed 911.

"I'm so stuck at Connors Farm," the mother told police. "I don't see anybody. I'm really scared. It's really dark, and we've got a 3-week-old baby with us."

"Just relax, calm down. Your husband is with you, right?" dispatcher Jamie Mondalto replied.

"Yes, but my baby ..." said the mother, whom police declined to name.

The seven-minute, 22-second tape recording of that 911 call on Monday night was released yesterday as news crews and TV cameras descended on the Danvers farm, following publication of an item in The Salem News yesterday about the couple lost in the corn maze.

They were located by a K-9 officer several minutes after the 911 call.

It was near closing time, but still daylight, when the couple and their baby entered the corn maze. But after they wandered around for more than an hour, darkness fell; and when they couldn't find their way out, the mother started to panic.

The couple thought they were lost in the middle of the maze, but as it turned out, they were only 25 feet from Valley Road. Though they could see lights in the distance, they could not tell where they were from inside the maze.

"They were almost out of the maze, but they did not realize it," police Sgt. Robert Bettencourt said.

It was Mondalto's job to keep them calm until help arrived.

"He did an excellent job calming the family down," Bettencourt said.

Mondalto asked the mother if he could speak with her 42-year-old husband.

"Could you just calm your wife down and reassure her help is on the way?" Mondalto told the husband.

Mondalto asked the husband if the maze was still open, and the husband said it closed at 6 p.m.

"Don't let your wife freak out, OK?" Mondalto told the husband.

A K-9 unit was responding, he told them, and he asked the man to cry out, "Hello K-9," every so often so the responding officer could locate the couple.

Eventually, the husband heard the police dog, Falco, barking in the distance.

"I hear the dog," the husband said. Soon, K-9 Officer Justin Ellenton could be heard yelling to the couple to stay put. Ellenton was on duty at the time of the call but did not use Falco to track the couple, Bettencourt said. He just followed the sound of the husband's voice.

"Never again," the mother could be heard saying, as she and her family were about to be located. "We thought it would be fun, but instead it's a nightmare."

She also said it was embarrassing to have gotten lost in the maze.

The mother and her husband said they had expected an employee would come around and check on patrons.

"No one came around and checked," the mother said.

This is the fourth year that farmer Bobby Connors has run the maze at the family farm, on a field across the street from the farm stand.

"It was after hours. We just let people take their time, and we don't rush people out of there," Connors said. "We want them to get their value."

If there are any cars left in the parking lot, an employee stays until everyone is out, he said.

Connors said the incident managed to draw a new type of tourist to the corn maze: television news crews.

Staff writer Ethan Forman can be reached at 978-338-2673, by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanverSalemNews.

Copyright 2011 - The Salem News, Beverly, Mass.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service