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MARSHALL, Mo. (AP) -- A small-county Missouri sheriff's urgent plea for help in looking for a missing toddler brought 78 people to the local jail in less than an hour on a late Saturday night.

The group found the 18-month old shortly afterward on the bank of a creek near the small college town of Marshall, but she was already dead from heat exposure and dehydration.

While the search effort ended sadly, Saline County Sheriff Wally George says he was encouraged by the swift public response after only the second time in his 33 years in office that he had to make such a request.

The girl's mother was hospitalized with severe dehydration, and George says he's ready to arrest her on a probation violation warrant when she's released.