WOODBURN, Ore. -- A 1-year-old child reported missing Monday was found under the floorboards of her grandparents' home, causing the floor to have to be torn up, police said.

Woodburn police responded to a call of a missing child on Sallal Rd. at about 5 a.m. Monday after the child's father woke to find the room his daughter had been sleeping in empty, officers said.

Lawrence Higgins Jr. told officers that he went to bed in the room in the grandparents' house at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday with his three children: a 5-year-old, a 3-year-old and the missing 1-year-old.

When Higgins awoke at about 4:50 a.m. he discovered that his daughter, Kate, was no longer in the room, police said. Higgins checked with the girl's grandparents who said they hadn't seen her and, after searching, they called police.

The girl's uncle, Tim Higgins, said the family feared the worst.

"We were like, 'She couldn't have went anywhere. She can't walk,' " he said. "'She's gotta be here unless somebody came in and took her.' "

About 15 officers arrived and were involved in an intense search of the house and the surrounding area but the baby could not be found, police said.

At 7:30 a.m., an officer heard the child coughing in the bedroom but still couldn't locate the girl, police said.

They realized that the child had managed to climb underneath the flooring although they couldn't figure out how the child had gotten below the floor, police said.

A hole was found but it didn't appear to be big enough for a child to fit through, officers said.

Officers then cleared the room of furniture and began to tear up the floorboards using crowbars, police said.

Officers could then see the child at the other end of the room but couldn't get her to come out although she was conscious and appeared to be OK, police said.

The rest of the flooring then had to be torn up in order to get to the girl who was finally recovered, police said.

"They found her OK, and I was just so relieved," Tim Higgins said. "It was a happy moment."

Other than being filthy, Kate was unharmed. She was taken to Silverton Hospital to be checked out and was released.

Officers said it appears that somehow the child fell off the bed, got stuck in the opening and wiggled through.

After the case was resolved, Department of Human Services workers were called in and found the grandparents' home to be unsuitable for children, Officer John Mikkola said.

The parents of the three children then voluntarily invited DHS to come to their Mill City home that was also found to be unsuitable for children, Mikkola said.

DHS workers who took the three children into custody said the homes were just too dirty, Mikkola said.

Christ, an accident lead to children being snatched by Child Pedophile Services...

This article just disturbs me.

It's something like 10 times more likely that a child will be abused in states custody than in a "neglectful" home.

Oh God... CPS fear rears its ugly head once again. I can say my own experience with CPS has been wonderful, but I won't deny that others may have had much worse experiences.

I wonder what constitutes "too dirty" though. I usually have a pile of dirty laundry in the laundry room and clean laundry in my bedroom (who has time to fold and put away clothes for 5 kids and an adult for 7 days a week?) Does that mean my house is too dirty?

so, the state has the power to take your children away when ever it deems you an "unfit" parent..totalitarianism at its best...

I dunno about other states, but in Washington, I have had a very good experience with CPS. Crazy people call on me... people from my ex's family. CPS has this noted in their files on me along with all their interviews and surprise inspections they have had to do because of these calls. Their official record on me is that I am a very fit mother who has crazy people call on her. They now just call me to follow up on the crazy calls, and apologize for the need to even do that much. But they looked very closely into my for two years before letting me go that easily.

CPS is there to help children who need it -- the last thing they want to do is destroy families. Aside from the obvious moral and human rights issues that stem from that, there's the simple fact that it costs the government time and money to resettle children with other homes and/or in temporary government custody.

Does that mean bad things don't happen? No. Of course they do. But I would like to point out that when CPS does its job right, it's very good for all children.

I've seen some bad things come from the CPS folks, both in print and in person, I was in states custody for a number of years growing up and I assure you it wasn't rainbows and flowers.

I had one good foster home, the rest of what CPS did was not pleasant, to say the least.