Missing Pair Found in Whitehead Community

Local authorities searched through the night Monday and Tuesday and into Wednesday before locating a missing 7-year-old child and his mother in the Whitehead Community.

Matthew James Wood and his mother, Teresa, were last seen at the residence of Ms. Wood’s brother in Whitehead, just south of Sparta. The two were spotted by local resident Kirby Seal as he drove through Laurel Springs Wednesday afternoon at around 1:30 p.m. Seal recognized them from news accounts and contacted the authorities. The mother and son were on N.C. 18 walking in the direction of Sparta.

Authorities were alerted that the pair had left the home at sometime around 3 a.m., leaving her vehicle behind in the driveway. They left the home traveling on foot; their direction of travel was unknown.

Volunteers with four-wheelers (all terrain vehicles) and other off-road vehicles combed a large area between Chevy Lane and towards Spicer Mountain Road. A search headquarters was set up at the Whitehead Community Club Building.

Sheriff David Edwards said his department handled the case as a missing persons case, not as search and rescue operation.

“On a missing persons case, we usually wait 24 hours, but since the little boy was with her, we started right away,” Edwards said Tuesday.

Helping with the search in the wooded area behind the home were local firemen and first responders, the State Park Service, EMS and rescue squad and a N.C. Highway Patrol helicopter. Search dogs from Iredell County also helped search at the scene.

The Wilkes-Alleghany Chapter of the American Red Cross delivered food to searchers and Burger King donated supper one evening, said Red Cross Board of Directors member George White of Sparta.

 

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