Autistic teen found alive in shivering cold Utah parking lot 3 years after vanishing from California

A California teenager with autism was discovered sleeping in a Utah gasoline station car parking zone three years after disappearing from his household dwelling.

Connerjack Oswalt, who walked out of his Clearlake, California dwelling in September 2019 on the age of 17 and has not been seen since, was discovered by sheriff’s deputies shivering from the chilly as he slept at a Summit County, Utah gasoline station this week. 

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Oswalt seemed to be homeless and had been reportedly residing 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 finally make it again there.

“Any hints at one thing that remotely resembled him, we might comply with up on it,” mentioned 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 style,” she mentioned. The precise circumstances of his disappearance and whereabouts during the last two years are underneath investigation, police mentioned.

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Deputies had encountered Oswalt a number of instances in previous weeks however the teenager refused their assist once they reached out for companies till lastly agreeing to be search heat in a patrol automotive on the freezing gasoline station.

That led them to an excellent warrant from February in Nevada.

The officers set to work shifting by paperwork, on the lookout for experiences of lacking and endangered kids. About 16 pages in, they discovered a 2019 lacking individual report from Clearlake, California. Although it had a barely totally different identify spelling from the Nevada warrant, the photographs matched they usually referred to as his household.

Pedestrians stroll in entrance of a road signal that reads “Face Masks Requried” in Summit County close to Park Metropolis, Utah, U.S., on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020.  Photographer: Kim Raff/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures
(Kim Raff/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures)

When the Flints first obtained the decision, they nervous 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 mentioned. “They may have dismissed it, however they didn’t and that made all of the distinction on the planet.”

Social employees educated about autism took over Oswalt’s care after the reunion along with his household, mentioned Summit County Sheriff’s Lt. Andrew Wright. His household is hoping to convey him again dwelling quickly.

The Related Press contributed to this report.