This story is truly horrible, one of the worst things I've heard in months. And yet, there is a happy ending which seems more like something out of a cop show on television than real life.

The story takes place in South Carolina and involves one very messed up family. Michael Comer and his former wife/girlfriend (it's not clear if they were ever married) are separated and the mom has full custody of their 11-month-old son, Koah. Because Koah's mom works, she gets babysitting help from her ex's mother, Patricia Comer. And sometimes Michael is present and even watches his son.

Monday, Michael Comer was supposed to watch Koah until another babysitter arrived. But when that person arrived at the house, both Michael and Koah were gone.

She said she went to work Monday and left Koah in his father’s care. Then, at around 11 a.m., a friend went to the home to drop off some formula but no one answered, prompting the friend to call her, Patricia Comer said.

“Something just did not feel right. I told my boss, ‘I need to leave work,’” she said. “Call it mother’s instinct. I don’t know what it was.”

The baby was reported missing and a manhunt began to find Michael Comer and his son. The FBI and the ATF were involved in the search but no Amber Alert was issued because Michael Comer didn't have a car or access to one.

That night, the manhunt found Michael hiding in a shed. His son wasn't with him.

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Later that night, cops found Comer in a shed in Batesburg and arrested him for burglary and resisting arrest.

“Of course, he didn’t have much to say about the whereabouts of the baby at that time,” Koon said.

The next morning, authorities searched the home of Michael Comer's father, where he apparently lived. Inside they found the baby's things, but not the child.

Deputies went to Comer’s father’s home Monday and found the doors open and baby belongings in the house but no sign of Comer or the child, Koon said...

A search party of nearly 100 police officers, firefighters and other officials looked for the boy, Koon said.

Searchers found a site Tuesday not far from Comer’s father’s house, about 50 yards into some woods with freshly disturbed earth, Koon said.

“As they probed it and laid it out and started digging, you could hear little Koah crying,” he said. “So, as you can imagine, the race was on.”

The baby had been placed in a wire crate about 2 feet by 2 feet and the crate was wrapped in a towel and then buried. Incredibly, Koah had survived more than 24 hours overnight. Police said they believed the towel had inadvertently created an air pocket that allowed him to breathe. 

The baby boy remains “clinging to life” in the hospital as of Tuesday afternoon, but Koon is hopeful he will “make a full recovery.”

“Hopefully at 11 months old, he will not remember much of this as he grows older, just to have a great inspiring story to tell,” Koon added.

As for a motive for this depraved act, no one seems to know. Michael Comer recently got in trouble for going to the home of one of the mother's ex boyfriends. How that leads to trying to murder your own son is beyond me. Even Michael Comer's mother has turned on him.

Comer’s mother, Patricia Comer, said in a phone interview Tuesday that she was shocked and that her son’s being in police custody was “where he needs to be.”

“Honestly, I’m his mother, and I never expected this from him,” she said...

Patricia Comer said that what her son is accused of doing is “pure evil” and that there were no warning signs.

Here's Sheriff Jay Koon relaying the story shortly after Koah was found alive.

This guy is going to get a long prison sentence for attempted murder. His refusal to give the location of the child after his arrest should seal the deal. Hopefully he'll be in prison at least until his son is an adult.