Six-year-old Max Sabol, who has Down syndrome, has become the first Mount Pleasant resident enrolled in Charleston County's Project Lifesaver program, a safety net designed to help deputies quickly locate people who wander away from home. His mother, Bethany Sabol, said a string of close calls pushed the family to seek out the extra layer of protection.
Project Lifesaver is built around a small wearable transmitter that emits an individualized radio frequency, and trained personnel can use that signal to track and locate a participant who goes missing, according to WYFF 4. Under the program, a family contacts law enforcement the moment an enrolled participant goes missing, and deputies then use specialized receivers to pick up that signal and home in on the person's location, as reported by WCBD News 2.
Max's family reached out to the Charleston County Sheriff's Office to begin enrollment after learning about the program, according to the station's report. Bethany Sabol said Max has figured out the safety locks around their home and has run toward neighbors while she was unloading the car — though she noted he has not wandered far enough for the family to lose track of him completely.
Traffic Remains the Biggest Fear
Bethany Sabol said Max is still developing an understanding of traffic safety, and that the possibility of him wandering into the street is a major concern for her. She said the close calls, including the incident near their neighbors' homes, are what prompted her to seek additional safety measures for her son, per the same account.
Charleston County Sheriff's Office Master Deputy Derek Conkey said deputies usually locate a Project Lifesaver participant in under 30 minutes, and that the most recent recovery took about 18 minutes. Conkey said the office has located every enrolled participant reported missing since the program began locally, and the sheriff's office has participated in Project Lifesaver since 2004, with 55 people currently enrolled through its county program, he said. The office also conducts routine battery checks and replacements to keep the devices functioning.
A National Network With a Local Track Record
Project Lifesaver is a nonprofit founded in Virginia in 1999 to give public safety agencies the technology and training needed to quickly locate people with cognitive disorders who are prone to wandering, according to The Post and Courier. More than 1,500 agencies across all 50 states now participate, and recovery times for clients average 30 minutes — about 95 percent less time than standard search operations, according to Live 5 News. That outlet reported one Charleston County case in which deputies used the tracking equipment to find a missing vulnerable man unharmed inside a home about a quarter mile away.
Neighboring Berkeley County launched its own Project Lifesaver program this month, citing a need that arises roughly two to three times a month when its sheriff's office responds to reports of residents wandering away from home. The county spent approximately $13,000 to get the program running, with enough equipment on hand for about 15 participants, after roughly eight to nine months in development, per the station's report. Charleston County's helicopter is equipped with compatible tracking technology and can assist Berkeley County deputies during searches, expanding the program's reach across the Lowcountry.
Why Keeping the Transmitter On Matters
The stakes of the program were underscored this past summer in a case far from the Lowcountry. Five-year-old Saylor Hayes of Washington County, Virginia, had been enrolled in Project Lifesaver since 2024, but she was not wearing her trackable transmitter when she wandered away from her family's rental house in Pawleys Island. She was recovered on August 31 in the waters behind the home, a day after she went missing, according to The Post and Courier.
For the Sabol family, the hope is that Max's transmitter never leaves his side. Bethany Sabol said the program gives Max greater independence and gives her family reassurance, and that it may eventually let him follow along with peers more freely. She said she hopes sharing her family's experience encourages other parents and caregivers to learn about similar protective resources available to them.
