cnn's laura jarrett joins us now with the details here. this is just -- >> remarkable. truly remarkable. a story of survival. this case had gone cold until this week when police say they got a tip about this young girl being held at her grandfather's home. the suspicion had been she was taken by her biological parents as they were set to lose custody of her. they had actually been to the house again and again but everyone there denied knowing anything. they had a search warrant. after searching over an hour, one of the officers there thought something seemed out of place. >> but the detective said there was something odd about the stairs. just the way they were constructed, the way they felt when he was walking on them. he took a closer look at the stairs. and between two of the stair boards, there was a crack. he used a flashlight, looked in there and saw what he believed was a blanket at the bottom. so they used a tool and started