Union County Search and Rescue was deployed June 10, 2025, after a 3-year-old child went missing from a campsite near Phillips Creek Road west of Elgin. The child was found healthy and uninjured in an area of down timber. (Union County Search and Rescue/Contributed Photo).

ELGIN — A 3-year-old girl who went missing from a campsite west of Elgin is safe.

Union County Search and Rescue reported law enforcement received a call around 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10, that the child had gone missing near Phillips Creek Road. Search team members found the child healthy and uninjured in an area of downed timber.

Union County Emergency Manager Nick Vora in a statement praised the work of the SAR volunteers, mutual aid partners and sheriff’s office patrol deputies for their swift work in finding the girl.

After receiving the initial call, Union County Sheriff Cody Bowen activated the search and rescue team. While the team mobilized, two deputies responded to the area to gather information for searchers, preserve any tracks or scent articles and conduct preliminary searches.

SAR deployed 14 members and an incident commander. Search and Rescue requested trail dogs through mutual aid. Dogs and handlers were enroute from Wallowa and Grant counties.

Personnel searched the highest possibility areas expanding out from the point where the 3-year-old was last seen. Family members, as well as friends of the family, helped with the search, driving nearby roads and providing containment.

Three patrol deputies, one of which is an unmanned aerial vehicle pilot, also responded. The pilot launched a drone to assist with the search — utilizing the high-resolution camera to search visually while using an aerial loudspeaker to attract the missing child with “some of her favorite phrases and things.” Family and SAR members reviewed the aerial footage on an external screen.

Around an hour after SAR arrived on scene, a two-person search team found the missing child near Phillips Creek Road. The family was notified and quickly reunited with the child.

Search and Rescue was remobilized and by approximately 10 p.m. returned to La Grande.

“SAR teams in Oregon are entirely reliant on the generosity and public service mindset of volunteers,” Vora said, “and it is the sacrifices that they and their families make to serve their communities that allows us to be successful.”