SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A 19-year-old who disappeared from his household’s dwelling in California almost three years in the past has been present in Utah, bringing astonishment and aid to his mother and father who feared they’d by no means see him once more.
Connerjack Oswalt was shivering and chilly when sheriff’s deputies got here throughout him Saturday sleeping in a comfort retailer in Summit County, identified for its ski areas, stated Sheriff Justin Martinez. Oswalt appeared to have been dwelling on the streets there for about two weeks.
His household had looked for him for years, handing out fliers, scanning social media and desperately chasing down fruitless leads. They even moved again to the city of his beginning, Idaho Falls, hoping he would ultimately make it again there.
“Any hints at one thing that remotely resembled him, we might observe up on it,” stated his stepfather, Gerald Flint. “It’s been an actual nightmare.”
Oswalt, who has been recognized with autism and different psychological well being situations, was 17 when he left the household’s dwelling from Clearlake, California. His mom, Suzanne Flint, remembered making quesadillas, however when it was time for lunch he was gone.
“I by no means stopped on the lookout for him. There wasn’t a day I wasn’t looking for him, in some kind or trend,” she stated. The precise circumstances of his disappearance and whereabouts over the past two years are below investigation, police stated.
What his household does know is that after deputies discovered Oswalt on the Utah comfort retailer, they requested if he want to come of their patrol automotive and heat up. He agreed, and ultimately let officers take a fingerprint.
That led them to an excellent warrant from February in Nevada.
“The deputies simply felt that there was one thing there, one thing past a legal warrant. There was a humanitarian effort that wanted to be explored additional,” Martinez stated.
The officers set to work shifting by paperwork, on the lookout for reviews of lacking and endangered youngsters. About 16 pages in, they discovered a 2019 lacking particular person report from Clearlake, California. Although it had a barely totally different identify spelling from the Nevada warrant, the images matched they usually referred to as his household.
When the Flints first bought the decision, they apprehensive their son had been discovered useless. After his spouse confirmed the identification by a beginning mark, Gerald Flint left work, jumped in his automotive and drove 4 hours to Utah.
“Everybody within the room was in tears. They went above and past, put hours of labor,” he stated. “They might have dismissed it, however they didn’t and that made all of the distinction on the earth.”
Social employees educated about autism took over Oswalt’s care after the reunion along with his household, stated Summit County Sheriff’s Lt. Andrew Wright. His household is hoping to deliver him again dwelling quickly.
“We didn’t deal with him as a legal. We handled as any individual that has one thing deeper that we would have liked to dig into,” Martinez stated. “That instinct is what actually reunited this household.”
