NEED TO KNOW
- Dakota “Cody” Trenkle Jr., 13, went missing while skateboarding in Goose Creek Lake, Mo., on Sunday, July 28
- After surviving for days, he was found alive at the bottom of a ravine and transported to a hospital
- His mother, Stephanie Neely, tells PEOPLE he is in critical condition after suffering “severe head trauma including several brain bleeds”
A 13-year-old boy was found alive at the bottom of a ravine after surviving for days without food or water. Since then, his mom hasn’t left his side as he remains hospitalized in critical condition.
Dakota “Cody” Trenkle Jr. went missing on Sunday, July 27, after he was last seen skateboarding in Goose Creek Lake, the unincorporated community in Missouri about an hour outside of St. Louis, according to the St. Francois County Sheriff’s Office.
Speaking with PEOPLE, his mother, Stephanie Neely, claims that she contacted police right away, but that detectives thought he was a “runaway” and didn’t immediately launch a search for him.
Instead, she says her sister, Brittney Van Volkenburg, a volunteer firefighter, was the one to reach out to the fire department and “formulate a search team” for the first two nights. “We had volunteers bring in their drones, and offers of dogs,” Neely says. “We never stopped looking for him.”
Dakota “Cody” Trenkle Jr. and his brothers.
courtesy Stephanie Neely
Things changed on Wednesday, July 30 — the day Dakota was eventually found — when his brother discovered his skateboard a half a mile from their home.
After calling detectives again, the mom says officers requested help from the county’s K-9 unit, but the dogs “refused to enter” the ravine, she says. Fortunately, the Farmington Correctional Center (FCC) K-9 unit was able to deploy their bloodhound named Darrell.
Once Darrell caught the scent, the dog was able to locate Dakota in 21 minutes.
Dakota “Cody” Trenkle Jr.
courtesy Stephanie Neely
The teen was found alive at the bottom of the ravine “in approximately one foot of water in a wet weather creek, 540 yards from his skateboard, with a 240-foot elevation change,” local police wrote in their news release.
The St. Francois County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for additional comment.
Dakota “Cody” Trenkle Jr.
courtesy Stephanie Neely
Dakota was then airlifted to a St. Louis hospital, where he was placed in a medically induced coma with a brain bleed, his mom tells PEOPLE.
Neely says that the shaded area that Cody was lying under helped protect “him from the direct sun.” She also says that because he was found “partially in the water, it did allow his body temperature to stay cooler, and helped him absorb some of the water to keep him partially hydrated.”
Dakota “Cody” Trenkle Jr. and his brothers.
courtesy Stephanie Neely
But as she told local NBC affiliate KSDK, the water caused him to contract “a lot of infectious bacteria,” which led him to develop pneumonia, and she said that being submerged for so long is why “he has such severe wounds on his back.”
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“Since then, I have been at the hospital, by his bedside in PICU watching him fight for his life in critical condition,” Neely tells PEOPLE. “There is no leg injury, but severe head trauma, including several brain bleeds. Right now he is on a lot of mechanical support, and will be for quite some time.”
Dakota “Cody” Trenkle Jr.
courtesy Stephanie Neely
Neely confirms that as of Wednesday, Aug. 6, Cody is “still in critical condition” and his “kidneys are starting to weaken.”
“We are actively fighting to try and get him stable, but all the cards are stacking against him,” she says. “He is still not breathing on his own, and we have found another fracture on his skull, creating a massive soft spot on the right side of his head.”
Neely has since created a Facebook group to provide updates for the larger community, titled “Dakota Strong,” while her sister made a GoFundMe to help with the family’s unexpected medical bills.
Dakota “Cody” Trenkle Jr.
courtesy Stephanie Neely
“There is still no real progress in his recovery. This is going to be a long, slow, uphill battle,” she wrote in an update earlier this week. “Cody will make some progress for a few hours, but then he will decline rapidly, and it will take his team several hours to get him stable-ish again.”
“So, for now, we do our best to keep him as comfortable as possible. and help his body keep fighting,” she wrote.
