The detectives dug quickly but carefully, as the baby’s cries underneath the freshly packed dirt grew louder.
Koah Sharp, just shy of his first birthday, had been buried alive for about 24 hours in Lexington County, S.C., the authorities said, entombed in a dog crate wrapped with a dirt-smeared towel. Deputies unearthed the 11-month-old on Tuesday, amazed to find him breathing.
On Friday evening Koah was in the arms of his 25-year-old pregnant mother, Dezarae Sharp, who was still trying to make sense of what had happened to her boy as she caressed his plump baby cheeks again.
“I can’t believe it still,” Ms. Sharp said in the first interview she has granted since her child, who is expected to fully recover, went missing. “It’s something you would see in a movie. It’s something you would see on TV. And the fact that it happened to him — I don’t know.”
Michael Comer, Koah’s father and Ms. Sharp’s ex-boyfriend, was arrested and charged with attempted murder, unlawful conduct toward a child, custodial interference and burglary.
“I didn’t think he could go that far,” Ms. Sharp said.
‘I Want to Be a Family’
Koah’s disappearance and his remarkable survival have shocked people well beyond Lexington County, a booming manufacturing hub that is part suburbia, part rural and near the capital city of Columbia.
The authorities have not fully explained the events that led to Koah’s being buried in the woods, citing an ongoing investigation, nor have they explained how they pinpointed the patch of earth dusted with pine needles where they found Koah.
But interviews with Ms. Sharp, Mr. Comer’s father and former neighbors, as well as a review of court records and text messages, offer some clues. In recent weeks, Mr. Comer, 25, had drunk excessively, refused to take medication for schizophrenia disorder and complained about being separated from his ex and their son, according to his family, Ms. Sharp and recent texts.
Mr. Comer could not be reached for comment, and he did not have a lawyer as of Friday. His mother and his lawyer from a previous case did not respond to interview requests.
Ms. Sharp said she had known Mr. Comer since elementary school. They didn’t date until August 2024 but were friendly throughout their youth. Once in middle school, when a classmate put an arm around Ms. Sharp’s neck, Mr. Comer “got up to do something about it,” she recalled.
“He’s tried to protect me before,” Ms. Sharp said, as Koah, whose teeth were coming in, watched television, full off the fries he had nibbled. “It’s really shocking.”
Before Koah was born in December, Mr. Comer seemed “nervous but excited” to be a father, Ms. Sharp said. At the time, he worked at McDonald’s and at a US Foods distribution center. The pair lived in a peach-tinted, sun-faded mobile home they rented for about $850 a month.
Candace Akers, their neighbor, did not know them well but said she recalled seeing Ms. Sharp appearing very pregnant, with hair dyed blue. Ms. Akers said her only interaction with Mr. Comer this year had occurred while walking her dog near his lot; he knocked on the window and waved his hands, telling her to get lost.
Parenting went fine at first, but in May, Ms. Sharp said, she confronted Mr. Comer about pornography she had discovered on his phone, something they had argued about before.
Afterward, Mr. Comer tripped and kicked her, Ms. Sharp said. Then, he shoved her against a dryer as she held Koah in her arms, according to Ms. Sharp and court records.
In the moment, Mr. Sharp said, he told her that he was unaware she had been holding Koah. She called the police, which led the State Department of Social Services to get involved. Ms. Sharp broke up with Mr. Comer, who pleaded guilty to a domestic violence charge, and moved away, she said.
Mr. Comer also pleaded guilty to an aggravated breach of peace charge related to a separate altercation with a different person in July, according to court records and Ms. Sharp.
As a result of that charge, Mr. Comer served a few months in jail. When he was released, his estranged father, John Comer, said he picked him up and offered to help put his son’s life back together, proposing that he move into his house in rural Batesburg-Leesville. John Comer and Ms. Sharp both said that Mr. Comer struggled with alcohol and depression.
Mr. Comer chose instead to live with his mother, Patricia Comer, who relayed to Ms. Sharp that he no longer drank, took medication for his mental health conditions and was desperate to spend time with his son.
“Are you OK if he sees Koah?” Ms. Sharp recalled Ms. Comer asking.
Ms. Sharp agreed to let Koah spend weekends with Mr. Comer and his mother.
In recent weeks, however, Mr. Comer’s texts to Ms. Sharp, who is 15 weeks pregnant with her second child with a different father, showed his growing jealousy and frustration over custody of Koah.
“U threatened it, u the one that wants to take him,” Ms. Sharp wrote to Mr. Comer weeks ago, referring to Koah, according to texts she shared with The New York Times. “I said what I mean. Plz stop texting me.”
“I don’t want to take him,” Mr. Comer said. “I want us to be a family.”
Then Mr. Comer sent a flurry of texts that Ms. Sharp did not reply to.
“I got toooo heated about the situation so I get not speaking to me anymore,” he wrote. “I want to be a family with real trust.”
‘Everything Seemed Legit’
After the most recent visit, Ms. Sharp waited for Mr. Comer and his mother to drop off Koah on Monday. They didn’t show. She asked Ms. Comer where Koah was. Ms. Comer thought he was home with his father, but she realized she was wrong when she got home.
Ms. Comer called 911 and told a dispatcher that her missing son, who was on probation, had “threatened to kill himself last night” and had asked “for some sleeping pills,” according to audio released by the county.
That morning, John Comer, who is separated from Ms. Comer, said he received an unexpected call from his son, who said he was in a disagreement with his mother and with Ms. Sharp over “how to take care of the baby.” He had Koah and needed a ride and a place to stay, so John Comer agreed to help.
In the car ride to John Comer’s house, which is hidden behind a dirt road and dense shrubbery, his son appeared stable, he said.
“I started quizzing him about the situation, if he had a working plan,” John Comer said. “He didn’t falter.”
Mr. Comer complained about his ex, accusing her of fostering an unsafe environment for their child. John Comer, who had rarely spoken to his son, was taking it all in as they arrived at his house. Koah began to cry, hungry and thirsty for milk. His diaper was dirty.
Mr. Comer changed him and fed him milk from a bottle.
Later that morning, after Mr. Comer’s father drove to work, he was left alone with Koah.
“I just figured he was wanting a place to stay, and they would work out something in the future,” John Comer said of Koah’s parents. “Everything seemed legit.”
Later that afternoon, John Comer received a call from the county sheriff. His son and grandson were missing. He also had missed calls from Ms. Comer.
Search parties fanned out across his property. Ms. Sharp, who suffers from a pregnancy complication characterized by extreme, persistent nausea, spoke with detectives and struggled to sleep that night through constant crying and vomiting.
Mr. Comer was found drunk by an old building on Monday night, his father said. A lead detective who spoke at Mr. Comer’s bond hearing on Thursday said he was unremorseful. John Comer, who spoke with investigators, said the authorities believed Koah would be somewhere near his property, given the brief timeline and surveillance footage that captured his son alone elsewhere later that day.
On Tuesday, John Comer said, a detective found a chunk of dirt that appeared to be disturbed. A dog sniffed it, and then crews rushed over with digging equipment. They heard muffled baby cries.
When Ms. Sharp was reunited with Koah at a hospital, she noticed scabs on his forehead that nurses initially thought were mud stains.
“I’m tired,” she said in the interview, adding: “But better now that I know he’s alive.”
Ms. Sharp paused. Koah sat quietly in another room, dazzled by Mickey Mouse twirling a magic wand on TV.
“Let me go check on him again,” she said.
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