The officers had been searching for an hour when they heard them: Faint screams coming from Mantua Creek.
They stopped on a bank of the broad and marshy waterway. About 100 yards away, they could just make out the 9-year-old autistic boy they'd been looking for, buried neck-deep in mud.
Without hesitating, they dove into the creek.
Officers from East Greenwich Township and nearby towns participated in Saturday's rescue of Caden Carlisle, a largely nonverbal boy who had wandered away from his backyard on Billows Drive in the township's Mount Royal section.
"Everybody makes the joke that a policeman is never there when you need them, and they were there for us, 100 percent," said Chris Carlisle, Caden's father. "We're eternally grateful. The response was overwhelming and very much appreciated."
On Sunday afternoon, participating officers shrugged off any suggestions of heroism. "Once we saw the child's head, there was no second thought," East Greenwich Officer Philip Owens said. "We were crawling on our hands and knees to get out there."
Officers first realized where Caden was when his father found his shoes on the creek bank. They searched for an hour. Then they swam through freezing water and scrambled across marshes to reach Caden, their feet sinking into the thick mud. East Greenwich Officer Bill Crothers sank in up to his waist; colleagues came back to retrieve him after the boy was rescued.
Covered in mud, Crothers drove home, cleaned up, and returned to finish a night of shift work, which ended at 6 a.m.
"I just ran out there and did what I could," he said.
Owens and two others -- Logan Township's Bryan Haas and Deptford's Adam Ziegler -- were the first to reach Caden, who was trembling violently. He could scream but is mostly nonverbal, police said.
The officers took turns carrying him back to land.
When they pulled him out of the mud, the boy was naked, Ziegler said. It's unclear whether he removed his clothes before going into the creek or they were pulled off in the mud.
Caden went missing around 3:45 p.m. Saturday.
Robin Carlisle, Caden's mother, was in New York visiting friends when his caretaker told her Caden couldn't be found.
At first, she said, she wasn't alarmed. Caden likes exploring. The family called him "Harry Houdini" as a baby because "he's always been kind of an escape artist," she said.
"That's very typical -- we freak out, look for him, and find him snuggled in bed," she said.
But when his caretaker said she had searched the immediate neighborhood to no avail, panic set in.
"The more time that passed, the more upset I was," she said. "I was really worried something bad had happened."
Her husband drove back from work to help search, calling her with every new development: when he thought he heard Caden's voice; when he found the shoes; when officers pulled Caden out of the creek.
"When I knew they found him, I called [our caretaker] and told her to run a warm bath. And then Chris sent me a picture of a very muddy Caden sitting in our bathtub," Robin said. "[That we were relieved] is an understatement."
Caden was treated at Underwood Memorial Hospital and released later that night.
The tide was out when the boy became stuck, Haas said, which likely saved his life; a high tide would have "swept him away."
Caden was at home Sunday and doing well, his mother said.
"He's a little clingy today -- he definitely doesn't want me to leave his side. Otherwise, he's doing all the things he normally does," she said. "We're more upset than he is. We're just thankful that Caden obviously has some special guardian angels looking out for him."
Copyright 2013 - The Philadelphia Inquirer
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
