QULIN -- A Qulin area toddler missing for more than 12 hours was reunited with her family early Friday morning after she was found lying in a cornfield near her home.
Authorities say Remington Nicole Elliott, 3, was reported missing from her home in the 500 block of County Road 243 at about 8 p.m. Thursday.
The toddler reportedly had been playing in her yard with a younger brother when she wandered off. Family members initially searched for the child without success.
Remington was "found lying in the cornfield alive" at 8:23 a.m. Friday, said patrol Sgt. Clark Parrott, who indicated the family's dog "stayed with her all night long."
A 911 call reported the girl missing at 8:32 p.m. and Butler County deputies and Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers responded to search for the toddler.
The patrol brought in a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with FLIR, a thermal-imaging system, from Jefferson City, Mo., and searched the area, but was unable to find Remington, said Parrott.
Officers, according to Butler County Chief Deputy Wes Popp, searched until about 3 a.m. Friday and resumed their search at first light, at about 5:30 a.m.
A patrol helicopter and private helicopter reportedly were used to search an area around County Road 243, which is the first road south of Oglesville.
About 50 to 60 volunteers, including officers and 18 members of the Southeast Missouri Search and Rescue, arrived Friday morning to assist in ground searches.
"We did, along with a lot of local volunteers, ... a line search in the woods, and then after that we changed locations to a cornfield," said Barry Matthews, Search and Rescue co-team leader.
Search and Rescue team members and volunteers reportedly spread out in a line along the edge of a chest-deep cornfield and waited as the helicopters completed a couple of sweeps over the area.
Once given the go ahead, the team members and local volunteers started going down the corn rows about three to four rows apart.
Local volunteers, Matthews said, were teamed with a Search and Rescue member.
"We were working the rows ... we were probably 20 rows in from the north end of the cornfield and about 150 feet from the (eastern) edge of the cornfield when we found her," Matthews said.
A local volunteer came upon the toddler. "They told me she was asleep," Matthews said.
Butler County EMS personnel, Parrott said, checked Remington out at the scene.
The toddler, he said, had some mosquito bites, but otherwise was OK.
Remington was reported missing by her mother, Timberlyn Merrit.
"Timberlyn said she cooked dinner and (Remington) asked to go outside to play," Deputy Cody Wilson wrote in his report. "(She) said (Remington) and her 1-year-old son went to front yard to play."
Merrit, Wilson said, reported she cleaned up dinner, as well as some toys, before clearing out the bath tub to give her children a bath.
"Timberlyn said she went outside to get the kids and ... only seen the 1-year-old," Wilson said. "(She) told me she asked him where (his sister) was, and he pointed to the woods."
The children reportedly had been outside by themselves for about 20 minutes.
Wilson said Merrit reported she walked out to the road looking for her daughter and then walked south along the woods, but was unable to find her.
Merrit reportedly called Remington's father and the child's paternal grandmother, who came to help search for the girl.
After authorities were notified, Wilson said, he was told to form a "line walk" of the woods and did so with the help of family members.
Butler County Cpl. James Skinner and his canine also responded and "performed a track from the back yard area that led several hundred yards northeast from the residence, but we were unable to find (the toddler)," Wilson said.
After the arrival of the patrol's plane, Wilson said, they "then began line walking the cornfield again, but were still unable to locate her."