SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – A 19-year-old who disappeared from his family home in California almost three years ago found in Utah, bringing surprise and relief to him parents who afraid they would never see him again.
Connerjack Oswalt was shivering and cold when deputies stumbled upon him on Saturday while he was sleeping. in convenience store in Summit County, famous for his ski area, Sheriff Justin Martinez said. Oswalt seemed to live on the streets there for about two weeks.
His family looking for for his for years, award out flyers, scanning social media and desperately pursues down barren leads. They even moved back in town of of his birth, Idaho Falls, hoping that he would eventually make it back there.
“Any hint of anything remotely like him, we would follow up on it,” his stepfather, Gerald Flint, said. “This was real nightmare”.
Oswalt, who was diagnosed with autism and other mental disorders, he was 17 years old when he left in families home from Clearlake, California. His mother, Suzanne Flint, remembered making quesadillas, but when the time came for lunch he left.
“I never stopped looking for his. There wasn’t a day that I didn’t look for for his, in some form or fashion,” she said. Exact circumstances of his disappearance and whereabouts over in last have been under investigation for two years, the police said.
What is it family does know this is after the deputies found Oswalt at the convenience of the Utah store they asked if he would like to come in their patrol car and warm up. He agreed and eventually allowed the officers to take his fingerprints.
This led them to an outstanding warrant from February. in Nevada.
“Deputies just felt that there was something there, something outside criminal order. It was a humanitarian action that needed to be studied in more detail,” Martinez said.
officers set to work looking through documents for reports of missing and endangered children. About 16 pages in found 2019 missing person report from Clearlake, California. Although the spelling of his name was slightly different from the Nevada warrant, photos matched and they named him family.
When the Flints first got a call they bothered them son was found dead. After his wife confirmed his birthmark identification, Gerald Flint left workjumped in his car and drove four hours to Utah.
“Everyone in the room was in tears. They did their best hours of work,” he said. “They could have rejected it, but they didn’t, and that’s made all the difference in in world”.
Social workers aware of autism took over Oswalt’s care after the reunion with his family, said Summit County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Andrew Wright. His family hopes to bring him back home soon.
“We are not treat its like criminal. We were treated like someone who had something deeper that we needed to explore,” Martinez said. “This intuition is what really reunited this family”.
