Connerjack Oswalt disappeared from his family's home in Clearlake, California in 2019 when he was 17 years old, triggering a massive manhunt that led his family to move back to their old town in Idaho to continue to search for him.
Despite tracking down countless leads, family and police had no idea where he was; that is, until police checked on a shivering 19-year-old who was sleeping outside a convenience store in Jeremy Ranch, Utah.
From CBS:
What his family does know is that after deputies found Oswalt at the Utah convenience store, they asked if he would like to come in their patrol car and warm up. He agreed, and eventually let officers take a fingerprint.
That led them to an outstanding warrant from February in Nevada.
"The deputies just felt that there was something there, something beyond a criminal warrant. There was a humanitarian effort that needed to be explored further," Martinez said.
The officers set to work shifting through paperwork, looking for reports of missing and endangered children. About 16 pages in, they found a 2019 missing person report from Clearlake, California. Though it had a slightly different name spelling from the Nevada warrant, the photos matched and they called his family.
Oswalt's stepdad, Gerald Flint, immediately drove four hours to Utah, where he credited the amazing work of the officers with the reunion.
"Everyone in the room was in tears. They went above and beyond, put hours of work," he said. "They could have dismissed it, but they didn't and that made all the difference in the world."
There's no word on why Oswalt originally ran away or what happened in the last two years. His family says he was diagnosed as autistic in 2014. Police reportedly began receiving calls of a young man pushing a shopping cart around the area several weeks ago.
According to FOX 13, Oswalt is now in a treatment facility with his family.
The Clearlake Police Department was also relieved to hear the news.
It was great news for us at the Clearlake Police Department to hear Conner was located safe by the Summit County Sheriff's Office. We hope Conner's family can get some much-needed relief knowing he is okay.
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