Toddler crawls through farm fields before rescue

Little Susanna Martin was missing from her home at dusk down near Stratford Tuesday night. She was missing even though everyone knew in general terms where she was. Susanna had slipped into a huge field of seven-foot-high corn while playing with four other children. It’s perimeter is just a few feet from her home. Her parents, aunt and uncle, dozens of firefighters and police knew she was in there somewhere. But overnight they could not locate her despite the presence of a helicopter with a heat-detecting device. Remarkably the little girl had blindly fought her way through the 80-acre cornfield and an adjoining soy field before entering the hayfield of a neighbor, Gerard Steenbeck. It would be all night and until 10.30 a.m. Wednesday morning for the happy moment of her discovery. Steenbeck said he spotted the child exhausted on the ground. She got to her knees, held out her arms and began to cry when she saw him. He grabbed Susanna and held her close. She quieted down in a moment.  She was weary, hungry and had a few scratches but was generally okay. She was taken to a local hospital and checked out before going home