Missing 6-year-old found safe with dog after hours-long search in Upper Peninsula woods

LITTLE LAKE, Mich. (WBUP/WJMN) — A 6-year-old girl is safe and back in her parents’ arms after following her dog into the woods in Marquette County Wednesday evening, sparking a massive four-and-a-half-hour search.

Rescuers located Payton Kagarise just before 12:15 a.m. Thursday. Marquette County Sheriff Greg Zyburt confirmed she was pulled from the woods in good condition. She was found sitting alongside one of her two dogs; the second dog was recovered shortly afterward.

The ordeal began shortly after 7:30 p.m. near County Road 456 in Little Lake. Payton’s great-grandmother, Diana, said the 6-year-old had just finished eating dinner and baking a cake when she asked to let the dogs out.

“I told her she couldn’t let them loose because they’re not used to the road,” said Diana. “My husband and I are going up our back hill, and he said, ‘I don’t want her going that far.’ So he went out to call her, and by the time he got to the top of the hill, she was gone. Just gone.”

Realizing the young girl had vanished, the family scoured the immediate property and nearby roads.

“I went out and I went all the way around our house,” said Diana. “I called for the dogs. I called for her. I went over to the farm, went to all the property, got nothing. She was just gone. We called 911 within ten minutes.”

Search & Rescue Response

According to a release from the Forsyth Township Police Department, dispatchers sent emergency units to the intersection of County Road 456 and Setter Drive at approximately 8:25 p.m.  

​A massive multi-agency deployment mobilized into the night. The coordinated grid included Forsyth Township Police, Fire, and EMS, alongside the Marquette County Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Division utilizing K-9s, Search and Rescue teams, and thermal drone units.

Michigan State Police deployed personnel from the Negaunee and Gladstone posts, specialized K-9 and drone operators with the MSP Tactical Support Team, and air support via the MSP Aviation Unit.  

The Crucial Breakthrough

​Hours into the operation, searchers received a crucial breakthrough from technology. A family member contacted crews after receiving a cellular alert from a private trail camera roughly a half-mile south of where Payton vanished.

The camera captured an image confirming Payton had moved through the dense woods.  

​Incident commanders immediately shifted search assets toward the area of Ski Hill Road, where crews closed in on her location.  

‘One brave girl’

Dozens of first responders, including the Forsyth Township Fire Department and Michigan State Police, descended on the area. When search crews finally reached Payton in the woods, she was remarkably calm.

“[She was] just sitting in the woods. Happy go lucky,” said Trooper Aaron Griffin of the MSP, one of the first responders on the scene. “She was not scared. I asked her if she was scared. She said, ‘Nope.’ She’s just a brave little girl.”

According to her family, Payton’s innocent love for her pets led her away from the house.

“She said the dog started running off, and she didn’t want them to get lost,” said her mother, Tiana Sicotte. “And she followed them.”

The successful rescue brought immense relief to a family who spent hours agonizing over the disappearance.

“I bawled my eyes out and just held her,” said Sicotte. “A lot of relief…”

“That reconnecting, being brought back together; that moment of just being back in safety, back in mom and dad’s arms,” said her husband, Tim Sicotte.