South Carolina man accused of burying baby alive showed no remorse and tried to flee the state, authorities say

South Carolina man charged with bury your 11 month old son in a dog cage in a grove of scrubby pine trees was denied bail Thursday.

Michael Comer showed no remorse for trying to kill his son, Koah, and attempted to flee the state, Tyler Douglas, lead investigator with the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, told Judge Gary W. Reinhart. Reinhart approved a public defender for Comer and set a Dec. 10 hearing.

Comer, 25, was charged with attempted murder, burglary and unlawfully endangering a child in connection with the disappearance and rescue of Koah, who survived. Comer has been in custody in Lexington County since Monday, when his son was reported missing.

Comer’s attorney has not yet been appointed.

Koah, who rescuers found after about 24 hours, was released from the hospital Tuesday evening, Sheriff Jay Koon said. He is expected to make a full recovery and is with family members, authorities said.

John Comer said he opened his home to his son and grandson Monday after Michael Comer said they needed a place to stay. On Wednesday, he showed an Associated Press reporter the small hole on a neighbor’s property where rescuers found the child.

“I can’t imagine how anyone could get to the point that this would be the right thing to do, or the thing to do at all,” John Comer told the AP.

Authorities have revealed nothing about Comer’s motives. He was sentenced in October to probation after pleading guilty to domestic violence involving the boy’s mother.

Koah’s parents “experienced certain situations,” the sheriff said.

“Children,” he says, “sometimes find themselves caught in the middle.”

Dozens of first responders scoured the countryside looking for the boy with reddish blond hair. After a full day of searching, authorities found freshly disturbed soil and heard screams coming from below, the sheriff said.

The boy likely survived thanks to cool temperatures and an air pocket created by a towel wrapped around the crate underground, he said.

Officers found Koah “clinging to life,” according to Koon, who called the infant’s cries “the happiest sound you’ve ever heard from a crying baby.”

CBS affiliate WLTX reported that when Koah’s grandmother, Patricia Comer, heard the baby had been found, she jumped out of her car and screamed, “He’s alive!”

In a 911 call Monday, the grandmother told a dispatcher she couldn’t reach her son and was worried about leaving Koah with him, the station reported.

“I had a bad feeling the whole time,” she said.

Comer was sentenced to probation in October after pleading guilty to domestic violence and aggravated breach of peace charges related to an arrest in July, according to Lexington County court records. Prosecutors dropped gun-related charges as part of the plea deal.