HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — Hernando County deputies released the 911 call after 2-year-old Joshua “JJ” Rowland was found on Friday morning.
JJ was reported missing Thursday morning after his mother said he wandered off from their home near Cheever and Yontz roads while she was sleeping.
The 5-minute call starts with the caller saying, “Hey, I found him.”
“You found him?” the 911 operator says. “Where are you at?”
In the background, JJ is heard repeatedly saying, “I want mommy.”
“How is he doing?” asks the operator. “He’s alive. He’s doing well,” the caller said. “I’m giving him some water and he’s wanting mama.”
The caller said they found JJ near a middle school on Cobb Road in Brooksville.
“It’s good to have all the boots on the ground to find him,” the caller said.
The caller then starts to reassure JJ. “Good job, buddy. Way to make it.”
“He’s got some scratches, some scrapes and bruises but over 24 hours in the woods, yeah, he did great,” the caller said.
The call ends with emergency services arriving for JJ.
Sheriff Al Nienhuis told reporters that the smiling 2-year-old was fine despite being out in the wild overnight.
“He’s definitely gonna have something to tell his kids and grandkids about,” Nienhuis said.
Many were impressed at JJ’s survival skills.
“There is threats out there that on a child that small,” explained Phil Walters. “They consider him food.”
Walters is a Gator Guides Captain and hunter and outdoorsman.
“There are panthers up, all throughout Florida,” Walters said. “We have, on the smaller scale, bobcats and coyotes. They’re both carnivores and predators.”
The volunteer who found JJ was U.S. Marine Corps veteran Roy Link. He said he was originally planning to go fishing on Friday morning but something told him to join the search for the toddler instead.
Link told reporters that he heard JJ making whimpering noises and found him in the woods.
