Local News

A man was installing solar panels in Plymouth when he heard a girl was missing. Then, he found her.

“If he didn't pick that path and see the missing clothing, we hate to think about what the outcome would have been."

Jake Manna at the Plymouth Police Department. Plymouth police

By Madeleine Aitken

1 minute to read

A man installing solar panels in Buttermilk Bay, a neighborhood in Plymouth, stopped working when he heard an autistic 5-year-old girl had gone missing. Then, he ended up finding her.

Jake Manna decided to participate in the search though he did not know the area, Plymouth police said. It was pure chance he picked the rural trail he did to go down, where he noticed a diaper and a T-shirt in a stream.

“If he didn’t pick that path and see the missing clothing, we hate to think about what the outcome would have been,” a Facebook post by the Plymouth Police Department says.

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Manna ran down the stream and reached a marsh where he found the girl in waist-deep water. She did not listen to him and kept wading outward, but he was able to put her over his shoulder and carry her out to safety, police said.

Officer Vinnie Roth, who was responding to the original call called Manna “a guardian angel” for the young girl, and Manna was presented on Thursday with a certificate and Command Coin from Chief Dana Flynn and Capt. Jamie LeBretton of the Plymouth Police Department. In the post, they called him the “nicest, most unassuming young man that one could meet,” adding “He also has great hair!”

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