LEXINGTON, S.C. — A South Carolina man accused of burying his 11-month-old son in a dog crate in a clump of scrubby pines was denied bond Thursday.
Michael Comer showed no remorse for attempting to kill his son, Koah, and tried to flee the state, Tyler Douglas, lead investigator for the Lexington County Sheriff's Department, told Magistrate Gary W. Reinhart. Reinhart approved a public defender for Comer and set a hearing for Dec. 10.
Comer, 25, has been charged with attempted murder, burglary and unlawfully placing a child at risk in connection with the disappearance and rescue of Koah, who survived and is expected to make a full recovery. Comer has been in custody in Lexington County since Monday, when his son was reported missing.
An attorney for Comer has not yet been appointed.
Koah, who rescuers found after about 24 hours, was released from a hospital Tuesday night, Sheriff Jay Koon said.
John Comer said he’d opened his home to his son and grandson on Monday after Michael Comer said they needed a place to stay. On Wednesday, he showed an Associated Press reporter the small hole on a neighbor's property where rescuers uncovered the child.
“I cannot imagine how somebody could come to the point that that would be the right thing to do, or the thing to do at all,” John Comer told the AP.
Authorities haven’t revealed anything about Comer’s motive. He was sentenced in October to probation after pleading guilty to domestic violence involving the boy’s mother.
Koah’s parents “have had some situations,” the sheriff said.
“Children,” he said, “sometimes get caught in the middle.”
In a 911 call released Thursday, Patricia Comer told a dispatcher that her son had “severe schizophrenia and bipolar and depression.” She said she had been “kindly worried” about leaving Koah with his father that morning. “He threatened to kill himself last night and asked me for some sleeping pills,” she told the dispatcher. “He kept making comments that he was going to take (unintelligible) to New York, which he cannot, because he’s on probation.”
Dozens of first responders scoured the countryside for the boy with reddish-blond hair. After a full day of searching, authorities found freshly disturbed soil and heard cries from below, the sheriff said.
The boy likely survived because of cool temperatures and an air pocket created by a towel that was wrapped around the crate below ground, he said.
Koah was soon freed and “clinging to life,” the sheriff told reporters.
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Breed reported from Wake Forest, North Carolina, and McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writers Ed White in Detroit, Michael R. Sisak in New York and Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed.
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