South Carolina father charged with attempted murder after 11-month-old found buried in dog crate

An 11-month-old boy in South Carolina is alive because a search party noticed a patch of disturbed dirt.

Koah Sharp was found Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 10, inside a wire dog crate wrapped in a towel and buried under roughly a foot of soil in woods near Batesburg-Leesville, Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said. His father, Michael Comer, 25, now faces charges of attempted murder, unlawful conduct toward a child, custodial interference and burglary, according to arrest warrants cited by the sheriff's department. Those are allegations. Comer has not been convicted.

How the search unfolded

The timeline starts Monday, Nov. 9. Koah was at the home of his paternal grandmother, Patricia Comer. She left to run an errand and left the baby with Comer until another caregiver, already on the way, arrived. By the time that person got there, father and son were gone, Koon said.

Patricia Comer called 911. "I had a bad feeling that something was not right," she told WACH-TV.

Surveillance video from several businesses showed Comer on Monday afternoon without the child, the sheriff said. Deputies found him Monday night in an outbuilding in Batesburg-Leesville. He was arrested on a burglary charge, and Koah was still missing.

Roughly 100 first responders from local, state and federal agencies searched through the night and into Tuesday. Deputies who checked the home of Comer's father found the doors open and the baby's belongings inside, but no sign of the child.

Then a search team spotted "freshly disturbed" dirt in pine straw about 50 yards into the woods nearby. "As they probed it and laid it out and started digging, you could hear little Koah crying," Koon said.

Why he survived

Koon said Koah was found "clinging to life" and "screaming at the top of his lungs." He called the cries "the most joyful sound you ever heard of a crying baby."

The sheriff credited the towel around the crate, which he said left enough of an air pocket for the boy to breathe. Cool weather also helped. Temperatures in the area dropped to about 40°F overnight Monday into Tuesday, according to the sheriff's office. Investigators believe Koah was underground for about 24 hours.

EMS took him to a hospital. He was released Tuesday night to relatives, and his medical team expects a full recovery, the sheriff said.

What investigators know about the family situation

Investigators have not named a motive. Koon said the child's parents "have had some situations" involving domestic violence, and that "children sometimes get caught in the middle." Comer and Koah's mother are not in a relationship.

Comer's relatives have offered their own explanations to authorities and reporters. Great-aunt Amber Hammond told the Associated Press that Comer had talked about taking the baby to New York because "he didn't want to be in the same state as the mom." When Koah vanished, she said, family assumed he had handed the child to someone. "We had no idea something like this would happen at all," she said.

Patricia Comer told WACH that she had worried about her son's mental health and his issues with Koah's mother. She said he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and manic depression, and that he had made suicidal comments. She also told authorities he had mentioned New York, where he said friends could help him find work. Family members told investigators they believe jealousy may have driven him to keep the boy from his mother.

None of that is an established motive, and the sheriff's department has not adopted any of it as one.

A recent court record

Court records cited by the Associated Press show Comer was sentenced to probation in October after pleading guilty to domestic violence and aggravated breach-of-peace charges tied to a July arrest. Prosecutors dropped a gun charge as part of that plea deal.

The records do not say whether the July case involved Koah's mother, and officials have not drawn a line between that case and what happened this week.

What comes next

Comer's legal situation is thin on public detail. It was not clear Wednesday whether he has a lawyer, and the Associated Press could not find a phone number for him. Emails to the public defender's office and prosecutors went unanswered at last report. No public statement from Comer or anyone speaking for him has surfaced.

The sheriff's department said Tuesday it was working with prosecutors to determine additional charges. By Wednesday the attempted-murder and unlawful-conduct-toward-a-child counts were on the warrants. No court date has been announced. The investigation was still in its early stages when Koon spoke, and the biggest open question is what Comer did with the boy between Monday morning and the moment deputies started digging.