A man has been charged with assault after leaving a baby alone in the woods for nine hours following a car crash.
Francis Carlton Crowley, 32, left the five-month-old infant under a pile of debris and sticks early on Sunday.
Crowley is scheduled to appear in court in Missoula on Tuesday on charges of assault on a minor and criminal endangerment.
Deputies were called to Lolo Hot Springs at 8pm on Saturday because Crowley was creating a disturbance and threatening to fire a gun, Missoula County prosecutors said.
Francis Crowley (pictured) was said to have been disorientated because of likely drug use when officers found him
Miracle baby: This five-month-old baby boy was rescued from the cold Montana mountains where he was left lying face down in a pile of debris for at least nine hours
Officers learned he and the baby had been in a crash earlier that day.
Crowley was disoriented, likely because of drug use, and unable to help officers find the baby or say how long ago the crash had occurred, charging documents said.
‘Officers continued to search in the various areas where the defendant stated the baby was located, but they had difficulty given the defendant’s numerous inconsistent statements about the baby’s whereabouts,’ court records said.
Crowley variously said the baby was lying on the side of the road or had died and was buried in the woods.
Federal, state and local agencies joined the search, and US Forest Service Officer Nick Scholz arrived with an off-highway vehicle.
He and Missoula County Deputy Ross Jessop followed a forest road on which Crowley said he had travelled.
They continued on a game trail where they spotted small-diameter trees that had been damaged.
Eventually, they spotted Crowley’s crashed car, but the baby was not inside, court records said.
Police officers found the child face down under a pile of debris after a long search operation
Francis Crowley, left, appears in court through video conference in Missoula, Montana on Tuesday, July 10
Officers followed a trail of personal items, including baby formula and a diaper bag, down the slope from the crash.
Jessop and Scholz then searched up slope from the crash, following a game trail until they heard a faint noise about 2.30am.
Jessop found the baby face down, covered in small sticks and dressed in only a wet and soiled onesie.
The baby was taken via ambulance to the hospital.
One the way, the baby coughed up small sticks, the charging document said.
He was treated for dehydration, lack of food and scratches, cuts and bruises and was placed in the custody of the Department of Public Health and Human Services.
Crowley, who acknowledged using methamphetamine and bath salts, was jailed, with his bail set at 50,000 US dollars (£38,000).
‘For all of us at the sheriff’s office, this is what we call a miracle,’ the sheriff’s office said in a statement on Monday.
‘For the officers who were present for this event, it’s especially hard knowing what this small baby endured in the last 24 hours.’
Crowley is from Portland, Oregon, and was previously arrested in June in Missoula on a fugitive warrant from Oregon, the Missoulian reported.
Crowley was released when Oregon officials decided not to extradite him, Deputy Missoula County Attorney Jason Marks said.
The nature of Crowley’s relationship to the baby was not immediately clear.
From left, Missoula County Sheriff’s Deputy Ross Jessop, U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer Nick Scholz and Sheriff T.J. McDermott who were all involved in the search
Crowley is being held at the Missoula County Detention Facility (pictured) on a $50,000 bond and is expected to appear in court on Monday afternoon