Fredericktown volunteer helps find missing boy in Oklahoma
Jay Corbitt (center) and the crew of United Cajun Navy celebrated after they found ‘RJ’ Davis, a boy in Oklahoma went missing for 9 days. Aylin Carter, Submitted Photo
In Caddo County Oklahoma, a 12-year old boy who went missing on January 2 was found by the search group United Cajun Navy on January 11.
During the week long search, RJ Davis’ parents were arrested after interviews by Caddo County authorities on multiple child abuse complaints in a widely reported case throughout the state.
Fredericktown resident Jay Corbitt was part of the volunteer search crew that found RJ near the village of Cement. The UCN crew arrived on Saturday night, and began looking for RJ by 8 a.m. the next morning, and found RJ around noon.
Corbitt said the search was a lot shorter than many he’s been on, some spanning a week and dozens of hours with hundreds of participants. This one involved multiple groups, with about 40 searchers. It took just four hours.
“We met, we organized the plan, we executed the plan, and more or less got the results we wanted,” Corbitt said.
Corbitt said he searched near a lake with a group. Then, the UCM made a plan to send just two members, Luke van Ryn and Thomas Gentile to find the boy in a sheltered building. Gentile said on a video that RJ apologized to them, but he told him he had nothing to apologize for.
“He was in good spirits when I saw him,” Corbitt said. “He was for the most part healthy, considering he had been missing for a whole week. He was very resourceful, he’d been eating and drinking.”
Corbitt said they would not have been so fast if it wasn’t for tips from community members, which are sent to the UCN Facebook messenger. He said the UCN used tips from towns people familiar with RJ.
Corbitt said tips can include everything from interests, candy preferences, and shoe size. “Every detail is important until it’s not,” he said.
A photo Corbitt took for UCN. In it, RJ is headed to safety. Jay Corbitt, Submitted Photo
While the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation offered $5,000 for whoever found the child, UCN denied the reward OSBI and put it back in a fund to recirculate. Corbitt said UCN never takes rewards, and all of the help and lodging is paid for by volunteers.
“It’s really hard to imagine people getting up and driving 300 miles and walking through the woods for someone they don’t know,” Corbitt said. “But some people do it. I do it because it makes me feel good. I like to go and help people when I can.”
“We got to hear [RJ] and ask him if he wanted anything,” Corbitt said. “And he asked for Little Caesar’s.”
VP and UCN Public Information Officer Brian Trasher posted a follow-up video to answer some questions about RJ. He said RJ is in safe custody with the OSBI. UCN are trying to set up a trust for RJ to help him rejoin society and spend time as an adult for school or however he wants. “He can rejoin society in a normal way that he should have had the opportunity for,” Trasher said.
