A two-year-old girl who became lost while playing in a cornfield has been found and is in good health.
The girl, whose first name is Suzanna, was reported missing late Tuesday night from a rural property on Whalen Line east of Centralia and southeast of Exeter, in the Municipality of South Huron.
She had been playing in a cornfield on the property earlier in the evening, with a group of other children.
When the group returned to the house, they realized that Suzanna was not with them.
Her relatives searched the property, but when they were unable locate the child, police were contacted.
Starting late Tuesday night and continuing Wednesday morning, a military helicopter and police canine unit were deployed to help find the girl, while volunteer firefighters performed a grid search of the area.
In total, more than 60 people were involved in the search.
“We were all really concerned, because it was dragging on so long,” said OPP Const. Kees Wijnands.
Word that Suzanna had been found came around 10:30 a.m., about 14 hours after she was separated from the group.
Gerard Steenbeek, who owns a nearby property, had spotted her while working on his farm.
“I just happened to see something – it looked like blonde hair popping up over the hayfield,” he told CTV News.
“When she saw me, she … got up on her knees and reached out her arms, and she started crying. I grabbed her and I held her close.”
Steenbeek estimates that the girl was a kilometre from home by the time she was found.
Suzanna was taken to a hospital in Exeter as a precaution, but was released Wednesday afternoon.
