UPDATE: 12-Year-Old Shares Her Story of Saving a Boy Who Fell Down a Manhole

Originally published June 14th, 2022

Updated June 22nd, 2022

(KNSI) — A 12-year-old girl is sharing with KNSI sister station Wild 99 what happened the day she helped save the life of a four-year-old boy.

After church on the morning of June 12th, Sadie Peterson said she saw a group of kids playing around a manhole. Rowan Sykes was apparently trying to stand on top of the cover “because he knew it wasn’t right and tried to close it” when he fell in.

She said she ran over, laid on her stomach, held onto the grass, and reached her hand down to pull him up and keep his head above the waterline so Rowan could breathe. His older brother Nolan ran for help, and mom Shayna Sykes came running in time to see a man named Tim pulling her son and Sadie to safety.

Sadie said his mom “was scared because she doesn’t know where he could have gone and happy someone could save him and that I was in the right place at the right time.” Sadie said it was scary for her because “half of my body was in the sewer hole.”

The cover has since been secured.

Shayna learned a few hours after the ordeal that day was Sadie’s golden birthday. She says her family could never repay Sadie for what she did but has started a GoFundMe. Sadie says with the money she receives, she wants to get her own hunting supplies, give some back to their church and save for college.

Aside from a scraped arm and bruised cheek, Rowan is expected to make a full recovery.

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