Where's she at? She right here. All right, we're coming. We're coming to them. She's face down, I think. Right here. I thought she was dead when I got here. Her eyes were wide open. She wasn't moving. Tuesday, January 16th, 2024, Douglas County, Georgia. Police received two calls. The first from hotel staff reporting the disappearance of a family and the second from a woman named Uriah Ridge stating that she was lost in the Foxhall resort woods with her children. The situation was serious. Weather conditions were worsening and forecast predicted to drop to 26° Fahrenheit overnight. Authorities had to find them before it was too late and the worst case scenario became a reality. I'm Tyler and this is your daily dose of crime. A boy and a girl. They're very small. Um they came in yesterday morning. I saw them. They were sitting in the lounge area for a little bit and um they spent some time in here and then they left. They went to leave out through the back but then changed their minds and came through the front. Um I never saw them again after that. So this morning in my usual routine check, I like to reach out to the guests and just check on them and make sure they're okay. And um I sent her a message but she never replied. I sent her an email. She never replied. And then the our housekeeping manager, her name is Eva, she came in and she said, "I just took a picture of room 313, which is where the woman with the two young children were staying." Um the the room seems like it has things in it, belongings of them, and then the door was open. So at that point, we were a little bit alarmed. And then um I let our front desk manager know and I guess she must have called you guys. Officers arrived at Fox all resort and spoke with the front desk receptionist to gather information about when Ridge and her children were last seen. This would help determine how far they could have gone and how long they had been exposed to the cold, allowing EMS to prepare accordingly. The receptionist stated the family was last seen the day before. That morning, while checking the room, hotel staff found all their belongings still inside, but the door had been left open and the family was gone. This would raise concern and lead staff to call the police. It wasn't exactly clear how long they had been missing, but authorities estimated they had been out for several hours. Fears grew about their condition, and time became critical. [Applause] And I'm telling you, I heard her on the phone. She She sounds terrible. We're trying to give the phone to the person that found her. I just want Oh, why he thinks she's doing this on purpose? She can't think straight cuz she's hypothermia. I ran code down here. I'm worried to death about them kids. When I was parked there when I was in there with Lindor car left right there. White male wasn't the one right there in front of you. Okay. Where she at? She's right here. All right. All right. All right. We're coming. It's moving. We're coming to this. Just tell them to stop. I've got the kids in my car. Get that one. So, too. Yeah. Hey. Jake warmank up from those cars. Bring it up here. Put them on. Whatever reason one left. Shut that door so we can try to try to maintain as much heat as possible. Minutes later, police received a third call. A man reported finding the woman and her two children in the woods. And when officers took them from the man who had initially carried them out, they rushed them straight to the ambulance. Both children were wearing light clothing. The 7-year-old boy, identified as Elijah, was visibly shivering and extremely weak. The three-year-old girl, Alina, was unconscious. Her body was ice cold and her breathing was faint. It was an extremely delicate situation. Officers and paramedics worked urgently to stabilize the children before their conditions worsened. She's up to heal. You need help with getting her fits in her crane. Do we know she had any medical problems? No. I don't have a camera. So, hello. I got one. Where does she want them at? Let me get bottles on her. You want to go under her shirt? Yeah, we got to get clothes off her. Okay, Jake, you got four shirt on this one. Got a warm blanket. Take your clothes off, guys. They're wet. They're damp. They're not helping her. They're naked. Hold this channel out here. Send me some blankets from those cars. Well, if you got it over here, all I got is one left. Try to try to maintain as much heat as possible. Can I set him down right here? Absolutely. Here. Right here. Right here, buddy. Here. I'm going put him over here. Okay. All right. Come on. I got you. I got you. I got you. Like a dragon girl. Got you. All right, buddy. Got you. What's your name? Elijah. Elijah. What's your sister's name? Aaliyah. Okay. Alina. Alina. Okay. Alena. She's going to be fine. Do you has any medical problems there? Does Alina have any medical problems? Does she have asthma or anything? No. You think she has asthma? Okay. Okay. We got a little bit of response. I'll take that. All right. Your clothes wet, too. Are your clothes wet? Strip his clothes off. Yeah, he's stripped. Okay. All right. Strip them naked. Here. If you want to get warm. You're okay. You're okay. Okay. Do you want his beanie on? Well, never mind. Somebody else. No, it's one of ours. It's dry. That down in there. Wet is bad. Dry is good. Just bones so weak. Your bones feel weak? Yeah. It's all right. Well, you're safe now. We're not going to let anything happen to you. Okay. Just hold it right there. Okay. I almost fall. I know, but you're here now. We'll we'll carry you everywhere you want to go. Okay. Paramedics immediately began treating Alina. Her condition became critical, and both children were wrapped in blankets after officers removed their wet clothing. Elijah, despite his condition, answered what little he could and tried to help the paramedics to assist his sister. The outlook became grim, and rescuers needed to act quickly to save the children and locate the mother. Where did you say you found her face down at? She's faced down, I think, right here. Okay. All right. Just back up just a little bit. No, you're fine. Yeah. I thought she was dead when I got here. Honestly, she her eyes were wide open. She wasn't moving. Okay. The mom was curled up fetal position right there by her phone or kind of sitting up, but Okay. knees to her chest. The son was standing right here by that stuff with his hands in his pockets. Okay. Let me get around there. [Applause] [Music] So, did you come down this way or find them or did you come around this way? Went all the way around in the back farthest corner by the next property. Your your people sent me the map with the location. Yeah. And uh so Connor had that and we we drove around and there's a fork back there which the ATVs can go this way but they can't go the other. And I said if they walk down there we're going to have to get out on the truck. Okay. So whatever y'all come back this way is when you'll come across them. Yeah. We we came up I stopped every once in a while and yelled and then I heard him when we were down over that hill and I said hold on and we're coming and then we came up this way. And I'm sorry. I don't know if it was that way or that way now. Yeah. No, it's fine. I think it was that way, though. I feel like it was down that hill. All right, man. Can I go over and take a leap? No. Yeah, you're good. Everybody else is with the kids and the mom right now getting them warmed up, but I'm at I'm at the site where the uh maintenance guy found them down here on the trail. So, we're I'm leaving everything intact till y'all get down here. [Music] So, right now, it's like a it's like a UTV four-wheeler trail that's down here. We're about a/4 mile up the trail from where they're at right now with the mom and kids. Um I see a cell phone on the ground, a tablet, a two black Nike tennis shoes, and a smart large uh smart water bottle uh laying by a tree. When the maintenance guy pulled up and found them, the little girl was face down in the mud. She wasn't moving. [Music] don't know. She's currently in hypothermic shock and Kyle was trying to heat her up with what we got and I jumped in the uh UTV with the maintenance guy to go find out where he found them at. Go to the Christmas party where we have in the building. Just hang a left and there's a gate right there. Now you're you'll have to come up drive up about as far as you can. Uh I can send the maintenance guy come up there and pick you up in the UTV cuz we're about a/4 mile off in the woods. 213. I'm all down there sometime. If you can, can you go back up to that location and if anybody like investigator or any kind of brass or supervisor show if they request to come down here, just bring them straight to me. I'll hang out here. Okay. Returning to the area where the man had found the family, officers discovered only scattered clothing and personal items on the ground. The man described the scene. Elijah had been shivering next to Alina, who was lying face down under a pile of leaves. Both were suffering from severe cold while their mother Uriah was curled up in the fetal position several feet away. All right, ladies. I'm going to lay you down. Okay. Lay back for me. So, his mom's still up in the woods. Uh, yeah. Is she going to be able to walk out? I don't uh I don't know. No, more than likely no. [Music] [Music] But you're waiting for another ambulance for him or we going to go ahead and take him or what do you want to do? I got I can't leave soon seeing the other ambulance gets here because of that lady. Let me move up a little bit. Okay. Is that one or they're saying that was more critical than this one? Yes. She's really bad. Is she bad? Yeah. How old is that one? Seven. Hey, buddy. You doing okay? Seven. Yeah, he's seven. She's three. [Music] I can take him in this. I just ain't going to hang that back here with him. Is the problem. He ain't got if his mom bad. Yeah. Is she? I'll just take him in this. I might get one of y'all to ride with me. So, somebody's back here with him. Move that stuff out of the way. All right. All right, buddy. I'm going to sit you up. Okay. Are you All right, buddy. Can you lay back? There you go. I got you. Right. Is that what they're taking the golf cart up there for? I guess so. Yeah. What happened? They got lost and it started raining. They've been gone. They've been lost for hours. Where's their Were they staying on property or something? Yep. You getting warmer? Okay. You got any kind of medical problems, little buddy? Mhm. Like you're diabetic or anything? No. It's just that my bones feel his bones feel weak. He was having a hard time walking. And also I have a sore throat and runny nose. While packing supplies into the truck, officers immediately transport Elijah to the nearest hospital. He said that he felt weak and his cough clearly indicated his immune system had been compromised. Can you get it off? If not, I'm not I'm cut it off. I don't know. Is it easier for us to get out that way or now? No, not that. But the officer up there. [Music] Okay. All right. Are you guys transporting the three-year-old? She already been transported. I'm with the sevenyear-old boy in the back of this QR. three-year-old. Yeah, they were soaked. [Applause] Everybody, whoever has the in the car, you can bring them to the main ER entrance. They know you guys are coming in the morning. 313. Where'd her phone go, Kyle? I don't know. I don't know. Where'd your phone go? Isn't that guy down there? Isn't that the one he said? He said he found her. Yes. Does he have her phone? I got to get my mug. I ain't got a hat on. in the bone here. I guess we need to clear this roadway cuz they can't go through that way. We going to turn around. Go back this way. Can't like it up there. That rac. [Music] Shortly after helping the children, officers located Uriah after searching the forest. She was extremely weak, her body was cold, and she appeared to be in shock. Officers and paramedics would place her on a stretcher and transport her to the hospital immediately. The outlook remained grim and as time passed on the conditions of the children and their mother showed no signs of improvement. I think they came from that way and there's a gate that's it's off cap fairy like right off the side of the road. You you can't see it unless you know it's there but I guess GPS took them there and Uber let them out there. So they came through that back gate. So instead of thinking they were up there, they came through down here and by the time they got here because through here I mean it's probably I don't I don't know. I get lost back here. probably a mile or or more that they covered on this trail and then got here. And what's sad is if they would have crested that hill, they would have seen structures, you know, maybe maybe not. I mean, they could have just as easily got looped around. So, awesome. People got your name and your date of birth yet. Yeah. All right. Officer see a big white guy just like So, this is the only thing is just here. I didn't see anything else on the hallway. any of their stuff. And where did you say she came from? Look at that. The gate is back to the left. It's right off Cap's Ferry. I can I can pull it up. We got It's a long way. I have no idea. Amanda, I can pull the footage. Yeah. Can you pull the footage and let us see that? This is where she Let me call her. That's where we are and that's where Casper is. When I pulled up, she was laid out with her hands at her side and her face was covered in mud up to here, covered in leaves. It's like maybe they tried to cover her with leaves and her eyes were I mean as big a wide open as I've ever seen and and and bubbles coming out of her mouth and she was right I took around that impression is right here. She was laid like that and then the mom was sitting kind of far away from her there. No, once he dropped me off I stayed here make sure there was a uh was the mom talking the other maintenance guy that came up. He come walking up through here. I told him all I said, "I want to get these wet clothes off of you." And I was shedding stuff to put on them. And I kept telling her, she said, "Okay, okay." But she wouldn't do nothing. I She was in shock. So I picked up that little girl first and put her in that red coat and sat her down and then got the little boy to stand over by the exhaust, thinking maybe it would help warm him up a little bit. What was he wearing? A gray hoodie. I don't know if those gloves were his or if they came from my guy. I didn't see that, Connor. Which is one of those yellow gloves you found. Right. Um, and then uh she couldn't stand up. She had her shoes off and her feet out on the mom and I picked her up and put her in the back seat. Uh, and then I had to mess with the little girl for a while cuz she was in the front and I didn't want her to fall. So, I just kind of burritoed her in that coat and put it over her face. But when I when I looked at her in there, when I put her down and then came back out here to get with them, when I came back again, I thought she was dead. She just wasn't doing nothing. I mean, and her skin was ice cold and her eyes were looking up and then she groaned a little bit and some more bubbles came out. Do you know how long they've been staying here? I have no idea. Who would know that information? Amanda the front on the phone. Yeah, cuz we don't need that footage. Yeah, she's pulling that. I asked her to get that for you. You want to know when they checked in? Yeah. When they checked in, how long they've been here? The man who found the family gave a full statement to police describing their condition when he discovered them. He said Alina was unresponsive, covered in mud and leaves, her eyes wide open and foam coming from her mouth. He explained how he had tried to help her along with her brother and mother, all of whom were showing severe signs of hypothermia. However, something in his statement stood out. He said that all throughout the ordeal, the mother showed no willingness to help. She simply said yes to everything, remaining seated and completely indifferent to her children's condition. What was mom doing? She was um had her knees up, arms around her knees like this. Uhhuh. phone was sitting where it was where it still is on the ground beside her. Shoes were off. Um she didn't have her hands clapped, just on her knees. What was she wearing? She had no socks, no shoes, the green leggings, um a hoodie and a red jacket. Okay. Um the hood was up over her face. And then I But really, honestly, I saw the little girl pretty much the main thing I saw. The boy was in the background standing. I I told the officers I can't remember if he had the yellow gloves on or if Connor gave him those. Okay. Cuz I'm not sure still. Um but I had a grabbed a red coat out of my car and it's like a weatherman jacket, a big fluffy jacket and I had it on. I took it off and I laid it down and like picked the little girl up and tried to roll her onto that and I wrapped her up in it and she didn't she didn't blink. She didn't do anything. She just had bubbles sitting out of her mouth, eyes as wide as possible, looking up at the sky. Um, I put her up on my shoulder and I kissed her forehead and I said, "It's going to be okay." And I tried to like rub her, warm her back. She was freezing at that point. I I I mean, frozen. I mean, she was ice she didn't move. So, did you think she was gone at that point? I I thought she was gone when we pulled up and like I said because the mom was sitting so far away and the and the son it to me my gut reaction was like they're staying away because she is dead. I don't know. That's why you said her face was on the ground. Her face was I could only see, you know, her left eye and the bubbles and then she had sticks and mud and leaves on her face. She had some sticks and stuff and and leaves on her back. Um she was obviously wet. Her hands were down at her side, wasn't moving in the mud. Um, so I I I put her in that, wrapped her up and started rubbing her back and panicking, not knowing like what should I deal with first. And I told the little boy to come. Were you guys on the phone with dispatch at that point? I gave my phone to Connor and Bob was calling him and I told him to run up here and I could hear sirens at that time. They were back here somewhere, right? Um, so I don't know what he said to them, but um, I felt like I was down there alone for a long time, honestly. And put her in the passenger seat, the baby. Mhm. First, fully dressed and everything she had on. What was she wearing at that point? Little Mickey Mouse hoodie. But one more thing, when I put the little girl in the car, I actually put her in the driver's seat first, got the little boy to the exhaust, picked up the mom, and put her cuz she wasn't moving. And when she stood up, she acted like she couldn't stand on her feet. So I had her my arms around her waist and her feet were on the ground and then I put her hips up on my hips and put her in my feet. She was like coal around me. Yeah. And he was scaring her through that. Yeah. And struggled to get her in that way. Those doors open. Um then I asked the little boy to go sit down. I said, "You got to sit down. I can get you out of here." And put him in the back passenger side seat. And then I had to move the little girl. Um, but before I moved her, I took that little white hoodie off of her because And that's what's located in your ATV right now. Was she soaking wet? Because that thing is wet and dirty. Was she I mean, she was wet, but the things are so thin. She wasn't dripping water. She just was soaked, right? I mean, we found them. You did? Yeah. The kids are not It's not good. So, we're dealing with it now. I need to get some information from you, please. No. Last time you saw her, she was in here. Yes, she was in here. Um, she walked in with her two children. They went to the lounge area. Um, was she drinking or anything? I didn't see her doing any drinking. I know one of the kids fell asleep on her lap. The other one was like there just, you know, playing around and stuff. And um, and they got up about they were here. They they were here for about I want to say like 2 hours. You got cameras in here? Yeah. Where they at? Are they in? This is the Uber here. The Uber dropped them off here. No, this is when they got in. I don't have video of them getting of them coming back. It's kind of because we never saw them. This is strange how she got so mixed up. After interviewing hotel staff and reviewing security footage, police would confirm that Ridge had left the hotel with her children more than 12 hours before they were discovered. It was clear the family had spent the night in the woods. The children had been exposed to freezing temperatures for over 12 hours, which deeply alarmed investigators. All right, buddy. We're here. I'm going to pull you out in just a second. Okay. Oh, come on. I got you. All right, buddy. They're going to take care of you. Okay. They're going to take care of you. Okay. Thanks, dog. Hey, no problem. Thanks for giving me a ride. What were the what what did you say about tonight? So, they got picked up at his mom's work uh somewhere not in Douglas County. She was supposed to get off at 4:30, getting off at 11:00. Um a male picked them up and an explorer brought them to the end of a road. Okay. And then they got out and they didn't know where they were at and they've been walking around ever since. Okay. Um do you have to call Nathan and tell him that? Yeah, I can. Okay. Um, and then this is all your stuff. Yeah, that is that's sister. She what? Oh, I thought you said okay. Where's she at? They're doing CP. She's Alina Ridge would die from hypothermia just hours after being brought to the hospital. Elijah Ridge recovered following medical treatment and later spoke with investigators where he told authorities that every time he and his sister told their mother they were cold, she told them to be quiet and did nothing. He was the one who had covered his sister with leaves in an attempt to save her life. Authorities reported that Uriah had consumed and before wandering into the woods with her children. Uriah Ridge, aged 36, would be found guilty of murder and first-degree possession of a controlled substance and public intoxication. In 2022, she had already been charged with after drunkenly dropping her then 2-year-old daughter. She's now been sentenced to life in prison for her crimes and prior offenses.