15 year old Columbus County girl found after going missing for nearly 24 hours

WHITEVILLE, NC (WWAY) — An intense search for a Columbus County girl had a happy ending nearly 24 hours after she first went missing.

15-year-old Jettie Edwards, who is autistic, went missing from her grandmother’s home, located in the 9000 block of Hallsboro Road South, on Tuesday night.

She was found in an unlikely spot.

“We found her in a place, her aunt has a horse farm and some animals off Deer Field Estates off Honey Field Road and we had checked that location several times, but she had gotten under a bale of hay, a round bale of hay for horses or cows in the middle of the horse pasture. She was under that bale of hay,” Columbus County Sheriff Bill Rogers explained.

Edwards, who is autistic, went missing from outside her grandmother’s home on Tuesday night.

Her aunt found her when she climbed out of the hay bale after hearing her aunt’s voice.

She was found in an area that had already been searched, but infrared cameras had been unable to find her due to the hay on top of her.

Sheriff Rogers said it means a lot that the search had a happy ending.

“Prayers answered, everybody was, so that’s a good thing. So any time we can come out, that’s a win, a win, not for me, that’s a win for the family and her. She’s healthy, we got her home, that was our main job and our main focus.”

And he thanked the hundreds of people and dozens of area agencies and groups who helped look for Jettie.

Sheriff Chism, Sheriff McVicker, Sheriff Wilkins, all the surrounding Sheriff’s Offices, you know, they responded or called if they needed to help. The state called, the prison department sent people, your volunteer fire departments, guys stayed out of work today to search. So they took a day off work, it’s money, it’s Christmas time. So that shows you the heart felt for the people trying to find the child here in this community and this county and the resources we come in.”

Rogers said as many as 200 people assisted in the search.

Edwards was taken to the Columbus Regional Healthcare System in Whiteville for evaluation.