May said they appear in great condition and were checked out by emergency personnel.
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There are multiple places they could be, he said. “We are going to bring them back”. Their disappearance Thursday evening from the campsite set off a massive search in the wooded, ravine-filled area.
Michelle Burkey said, “All night; very relieved”. “Initially, the women and the girls were going to join later”.
“You’re always panicked, but I just had this feeling that God was with them the whole time”, says Julia Esposito, mother of Michael Esposito.
Search and rescue crews accompanied by hound dogs spent the night looking for the cousins. A helicopter also flew over the area as part of the search.
The Red River Gorge is a heavily wooded, rocky destination popular with hikers, campers and rock climbers.
“They’re just chowing down right now”, May said in a telephone interview. “They have teams out in different areas around the campground”. Hundreds of people searching for the boys non-stop.
Adrian is a second-grader at a school in Bloomington and Michael is a kindergartner at St. Thomas School in Withamsville.
Back at the animal hospital, they were fielding calls all morning from concerned friends and customers while workers were checking on the progress of the search regularly.
The boys had gone to the campsite with the younger boy’s father and a grandfather of both boys, Veeneman said.
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WCPO will update this story when more information is available.
