Jun 15, 10:15 PM EDT
Missing 2 days, 5-year-old found alive
By CARLA K. JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer
MOMENCE, Ill. (AP) -- A 5-year-old girl who was feared drowned with
her grandfather on a boating trip startled searchers Friday when she
emerged from the woods - naked, scratched and holding raspberries.
Crews had pulled her grandfather's body from the Kankakee River in
eastern Illinois just hours earlier.
"People were like, 'Who's that little girl? That can't be her, can
it?'" Kankakee Sheriff's Chief Deputy Ken McCabe said. "I went up to
her (and) asked, 'How you doing? What's your name?'"
When authorities told Hannah Klamecki's family - already grieving the
loss of her grandfather - that she was alive, the home erupted in
screaming.
Hannah was taken to a hospital as a precaution. She slept with her
parents and a teddy bear at her side before being released. Cradling
the bear, she spoke freely of her ordeal Friday evening.
"I was scared last night when everybody was gone," she said. "I went
searching all over the world to look for the cottage (where her
grandparents live)."
Hannah had scratches on her face and body and thick dirt under her
nails. She had poison ivy rashes on her legs and couldn't walk because
splinters and thorns cut her feet.
Hannah and her grandfather, David Klamecki, 62, were last seen
Wednesday evening on the river near Momence, about 45 miles south of
Chicago.
Authorities believe the river current swept the girl away from a small
island where she and her grandfather had stopped to swim and to the
shore of the mainland where she eventually was found.
She told searchers she was wearing floats on her arms and pulled
herself from the water with a branch.
"That's a tough little girl, I tell you," McCabe said.
Hannah said she had taken off her bathing suit because it was muddy
and itchy, friends of the family said.
She was also a bit dehydrated and "very, very tired," said Riverside
Medical Center in Kankakee spokesman Carl Maronich.
On Friday morning, searchers found her grandfather's body near the
island, which is close to a part of the river locals call "Whirlpool
Bend" because of strong currents from the union of the river and two
tributaries.
The surrounding area is wilderness with no homes, and populated only
by coyotes and deer, Momence Fire Chief Dave Horn said.
Richard Wehrle, a friend and neighbor of David Klamecki, said the area
is notoriously treacherous.
"Anybody who knows that river knows that that's the deadliest part of
the river," Wehrle said.
The girl's footprints were still visible on the island beach.
Searchers believed she had drowned and were scouring the area with a
team of divers, sonar equipment and a helicopter.
Hannah appeared just before 10:30 a.m., in an area about
three-quarters of a mile from where she's believed to have reached the
shore, McCabe said.
The girl was reunited with her parents, who were waiting with family
and friends at the grandparents' home.
Hannah calmly sat in a rescue vehicle when her parents saw her for the
first time, her father said.
"She didn't say much," Mike Klamecki said. "She was eating her banana
looking at us. We were jumping around like maniacs."
Tricia Little, a close family friend of Hannah's parents, said David
Klamecki taught the girl and her two younger sisters about the
outdoors. She credits that instruction - and God - with Hannah's survival.
Hannah's father, Mike Klamecki, is senior pastor at New Hope Community
Church in Villa Park. Little's husband, Brian, said parishioners have
been "praying for his whole family."
"Obviously, we're giving all the glory to God on this one," Brian
Little said.
© 2007 The Associated Press.
