Worry gave way to relief, and fear became joy Thursday morning when the volunteers who had flocked to Estate Grove Place learned that the subject of their search, a 4-year-old girl who had been missing almost 24 hours, had been found.

"I can’t even explain the feeling," said Ray Williams, who was among the first on the scene where Melanie Terra Ferguson was found. Williams, the chief of staff for Lt. Gov. Gregory Francis, was among the roughly 75 people who had volunteered to search for the girl who had been missing since the previous morning.

When he and others raced to the place where Melanie was standing by the road, stoic and a little dazed, there was an outpouring of emotion.

"I didn’t know the child or even the family before this morning," he said in a telephone interview Thursday afternoon. "It’s a feeling, not something you can explain thoroughly. Everyone at the scene was all emotional, jovial, excited."

Liz Goggins of St. Croix Rescue was at the Fergustrax Heavy Machinery yard, near the girl’s home, checking in volunteers and assigning them to five- or six-member teams to search designated areas. Most teams had at least one police officer with them so they would remain in radio contact.

That’s how word got out to all the searchers when the girl was found. "People were hopeful," Goggins said. "People were definitely concerned but still hopeful." When word came about an hour and a half later, "It was really cool."

"A gentleman drove up in a truck and said he saw her on the road," Goggins recalled. "As soon as he said that, maybe five or six police were there … a couple got in his vehicle and the others got in police cars and took off."

Summing it up, Goggins could only say, "It was way cool."

Williams had been searching with a group that included the girl’s mother, whose name was not available. As the search started Thursday morning she had asked Williams, "Are we going to find her?" Williams said he replied, "Yes, yes we’re going to find her today."

The group worked around the backside of Carambola Golf Course, where the mother thought the 4-year-old might have headed, and then worked up to the top of Goat Hill. They had searched through some ravines and had just regrouped near two homes under construction when they received a report that Melanie had been spotted on the road.

"By the time we got down there, she was standing in the road with her dogs," Williams said. "She was kind of stoic, confused and shocked."

The two family dogs, a pair of Chihuahuas, had gone off with Melanie when she wandered away from home Wednesday. They were not on leashes, but they were still with their young master. In fact, when the first person on the scene arrived, the tiny dogs would not let him approach her, Williams said.

It is not yet known where Melanie spent the night or what prompted her to wander off in the first place.

Goggins said about 120 people were involved in searching for the girl Wednesday afternoon, and 75 were on the ground searching Thursday morning, with more continuing to arrive, when word came that she had been found.

Searchers included the V.I. Police Department, police recruits, police cadets, members of the Fire Service, the Civil Air Patrol, St. Croix Rescue, the National Guard, officers from Licensing and Consumer Affairs, Port Authority police, employees of V.I. Waste Management and community members who heard there was someone in need. The search also included a helicopter and several all-terrain vehicles.

"For me, the telling tale was that when we’re in deep crisis like this, people from our community come from near and far to help," Williams said.

Williams said he hadn’t been able to sleep the previous night thinking about his own two daughters. He was out to join the search at 5:30 a.m.

"When I got there and saw the amount of people out there willing to help so early in the morning, I felt good," he said. He also credited the successful end to the search to "a whole lot of prayer throughout the community."

Acting Police Chief James Parris said he “breathed a sigh of relief” when he got the news. He thanked the community and the volunteers for uniting in the effort to find the lost girl.

“Everyone took this one personally," Parris said. "They were determined to find this little girl unharmed … This is a perfect example of how the police and the community can unite for a common cause. This should not be an exception to the rule, but it should be a common occurrence.”