When three-year-old Jude Leyton went missing for three days, his parents feared the worst. The toddler had wandered off near the forest in South Frontenac, Ontario, Canada.

The acres and acres of woodlands and lakes are gorgeous for sightseeing but are not the best spot to get separated from your family.

It was 11 in the morning on Sunday and the toddler was nowhere to be found.

The nearby woods were an obvious place to search, though it wouldn’t be easy.

However, bears and grey wolves are a lot more fascinating when your three-year-old isn’t potentially lost in the wilderness with them.

A sizable search party got to work.

About 100 people were part of the search party. They covered every body of water and cliff range in the area. Air units were present as well. Basically, they were adamant about finding the boy.

With Ontario provincial police and some volunteer rescuers working together, their odds seemed pretty good.

Among the party were four members of the Ontario Provincial Police. These consisted of Peter Wrigglesworth, Mike Ball, Greg Verney, and Scott McNames. After all those long hours of searching, Scott McNames caught sight of a small, blue jacket while he was tagging a tree.

Upon getting closer, Scott realized it was the little boy.

He was scared and very thirsty. But he was okay.

“I said to Greg, ‘There’s something blue up there,’ and he ran up ahead, and I came up beside him and he said, ‘It’s him.'”

Searching for the boy felt pretty close to home for McNames. The officer is himself a father and knew full well how deathly worried the boy’s parents were.

Jude’s family was so relieved to have found their son.

The spot where they found Jude was roughly a kilometer away from where he lived. The officers recalled how they returned the boy to his family and what it was like:

“They came down the trail. They came and met us before we got back to the cottage. And yeah, it was nice to give him to his mom and dad. Very nice moment.”

It was a bit of a miracle to find the boy unharmed.

Luckily, the fear and anxiety were worse than what he actually went through. Jude’s grandfather, Chris Fisher, said it best:

“He must have a very strong will to live to survive that horrendous rainy weather and cold on Sunday and Monday nights all alone in a very wild and treacherous area.”

Scott McNames was quoted as saying:

“We never gave up. No, we never gave up. That proved to be the deciding factor.”

Click the video below to hear more about this amazing rescue!

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Source: Global News on YouTube, Ottawa CTV News