'Miracle' amid tragedy: 1-year-old boy found alive alongside highway after older brother found dead in Beryl's wake

A grandmother in Louisiana is both celebrating and mourning after her 1-year-old grandson was found alive hours after the lifeless body of his 4-year-old brother was pulled from a lake.

A tragic storm

Hurricane Beryl made landfall early Monday morning, unleashing heavy rain and knocking out electricity for some 3 million Texans. It also caused similar disturbances in Vinton, Louisiana, a city of some 3,400 residents just east of the Texas border.

On Monday afternoon, the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office received a report of a body floating in a lake just behind the Vinton Welcome Center. The agency then released a brief description of the deceased on Facebook, calling him only "an African American child."

Soon afterward, Conswella Jack of Lake Charles, Louisiana, came forward, fearing that the body might be that of her 4-year-old grandson, Legend. Sadly, she was right.

'Looked like it was wrecked': Background of a troubled family

Already heartbroken, Jack then informed deputies that Legend has a 1-year-old brother, Kingtrail, whom she had not seen since her mother's funeral on Saturday.

'We were in the process of moving assets out to Vinton to search the body of water to see if we could locate the 1-year-old.'

Jack also shared information about her family that heightened everyone's concerns about little Kingtrail. Jack claimed that her daughter, 25-year-old Aaliyah Jack, is the mother of both boys. Though Aaliyah has legal custody of them, she had recently "fallen on hard times," Jack indicated.

So Conswella Jack decided to care for Kingtrail, the boys' paternal grandmother watched over Legend, and Aaliyah Jack fled to Baton Rouge for reasons unknown. The family was reunited on Saturday at the funeral for Conswella's mother.

Aaliyah also attended the funeral. While there, she reassumed custody of her sons and left.

In the hours that followed, Conswella became frantic, trying to reach Aaliyah. "The next day, which was Sunday, after trying to call her, she finally reaches out to me, but it's a text," Conswella recalled. "She sent me a picture of a car in some bushes that kind of looked like it was wrecked."

Aaliyah made no further contact, and Conswella told investigators she worried that Kingtrail might have met the same fate as Legend.

"We were in the process of moving assets out to Vinton to search the body of water to see if we could locate the 1-year-old," said Calcasieu Sheriff Stitch Guillory.

'He smiled at me': A miraculous discovery

At around 9 a.m. on Tuesday, while deputies and the Jack family prepared for the worst about Kingtrail, a truck driver, unaware of the recent tragedy, was just going about his business, driving along Interstate 10 not far from the Vinton Welcome Center. Suddenly, he spotted something in a ditch alongside the road.

"There was a little boy sitting down in the embankment there," the unidentified trucker recalled.

"As I approached him, he smiled at me and then he started crying and walked toward me," he continued. "Once he walked toward me, I grabbed his hand and he stopped crying at that point."

The trucker then phoned police, who later confirmed that the boy was indeed the missing Kingtrail. Though he had suffered bug bites, he otherwise was in good condition and has already been released from the hospital.

Sheriff Guillory said his office views Kingtrail "as our miracle baby." "This kid spent two days out in the weather on the side of the highway," an incredulous Guillory said at a press conference. "Thank God that trucker seen him."

"Unbelievable."

'So blessed ... but also so hurt': Continued fallout

A warrant was later issued for Aaliyah Jack for failing to report a missing child, and she was soon taken into custody in Meridian, Mississippi, about 400 miles east of Vinton, Louisiana, where her boys were found. She is currently fighting extradition to Louisiana, where she faces a bond of $300,000.

Meanwhile, her mother has been left to grieve one grandson while fighting for custody of the other. "I was so blessed to hear the baby survived, but also so hurt because one is now gone," Conswella Jack said.

"It’s stressful because they're gonna put me through all what I'm about to go through just to get [Kingtrail] back," she continued. "I don't even have the funds for it, so I have to do everything I can to get that baby back, because ain't nobody know him like we know him."

Kingtrail is currently believed to be in state custody. So far, no cause of death has been determined for his brother, Legend, whose body had no obvious injuries when it was recovered. The results of the autopsy are pending.

Further charges in this case could be forthcoming.

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