An 11-month-old South Carolina boy who authorities say was buried alive in a dog crate by his father was found by rescuers after about 24 hours, crying and covered in dirt, his grandfather said about the dramatic rescue.

But soon after, little Koah Sharp stopped crying, John Comer told the Associated Press on Wednesday night as he recalled the events that played out the day before in the woods on his neighbor’s property. The infant was put on the back of a truck and sat up, Comer said.

“I became ecstatic, my hands straight in the air. I’m looking in the sky, jumping up and down, praising God,” Comer said. “And at the same time I hit my knees and I’m just crying.”

Koah was released from a hospital Tuesday night and is expected to make a full recovery, sheriff Jay Koon said.

The boy’s father, Michael Comer, 25, has been charged with attempted murder. John Comer said he’d opened his home to his son and grandson on Monday after Michael Comer said they needed a place to stay.

Michael Comer has been in custody since Monday, when Koah disappeared. Authorities haven’t revealed anything about Comer’s motive. He was sentenced to probation in October after pleading guilty to domestic violence.

Koah’s parents “have had some situations”, the sheriff said.

“Children”, he said, “sometimes get caught in the middle”.

Survival was helped by cool temperatures and a towel

Dozens of first responders scoured the countryside looking for the boy with reddish blond hair. After a full day of searching, authorities found freshly disturbed soil and heard cries from below ground, the sheriff said.

“As you can imagine, the race was on. Everyone was trying to get him out,” Koon said.

The boy likely survived because of cool temperatures and an air pocket created by a towel that was wrapped around the crate below ground, he said.

Koah was soon freed and “clinging to life”, the sheriff told reporters.

Comer was arrested while hiding in a building in Batesburg-Leesville. It wasn’t immediately known if he has a lawyer who could respond to the charges. A court hearing was planned for Thursday.

“We’re better now that we know that Koah is safe,” his great-aunt, Amber Hammond, told the Associated Press. She was watching as he was freed from the crate.

Authorities said Koah had been in the care of Michael Comer’s mother. She had to run an errand and left the boy in her son’s care while another caregiver was on the way.

“By the time the caregiver got there, Michael was gone, and Koah was gone with him,” the sheriff said.

Surveillance video from several businesses in the area showed Comer without the baby on Monday afternoon, Koon said.

John Comer said he feels like he was taken advantage of by his son when he asked for a place to stay. But, he said, he is also thankful that he agreed because if they had gone somewhere else they may not have found the boy in time.

“It just seems like he already had this planned out, and he knew what he was doing,” Comer said. “And he took the opportunity to do what he did. And if it hadn’t have been here, I don’t think anybody would have known where he would have went, and this would be a completely different story.”

Michael Comer had talked of taking the boy out of state.

Hammond said her nephew had talked about taking the baby to New York because “he didn’t want to be in the same state as the mom”. When Koah vanished, she and others assumed that Comer had given the boy to someone.

“We had no idea something like this would happen at all,” Hammond said.

Comer was sentenced to probation in October after pleading guilty to domestic violence and aggravated breach-of-peace charges related to an arrest in July, Lexington county online court records show. Prosecutors dropped a gun charge as part of the plea deal. He also got credit for spending more than two months in jail.

At nearly a year old, Koah has been trying to stand on his own, said Hammond, who cared for him last weekend. And he loves watching Mickey Mouse cartoons.

John Comer said he’d never heard his grandson cry before he was found underground.

“He’s always been happy,” he said. “The kid’s always got a smile on his face.”