After three years of searching, the missing teenager was found 700 miles from where he went missing in California.
Authorities have identified a young man with autism sleeping at a gas station in Utah as a missing Connorjack Oswalt boy last week.
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Conradjack Oswalt disappeared in September 2019. Credit: Summit County Sheriff’s Office
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Summit County Police Find Oswalt in Front of Gas Station in ColdCredit: Summit County Sheriff’s Office
Sheriff Justin Martinez said Oswalt, now 19, was shivering in front of a store in a Summit County gas station when lawmakers found him.
In the weeks leading up to law enforcement intervention on April 9, the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post that it had received and responded to numerous reports of a homeless man in the area pushing a shopping cart.
After arriving at a gas station in most of Park City, lawmakers suggested the man sit in one of the police patrol cars to keep warm while checking the man’s identity.
“Through past interactions and Saturday’s engagement, it became clear to lawmakers that the man communicated differently,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement, including a hashtag about autism awareness.
Eventually, the police persuaded Oswalt to allow them to take his fingerprint, which led them to discover that he had a previous arrest warrant.
A dispatcher then browsed the pages of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s website, where he found a missing poster of Oswalt by his desperate parents.
The National System on Missing and Unidentified Persons says Oswalt was diagnosed with autism in 2014 and had a “running history.”
The teenager disappeared in September 2019 from Clearlake, California, which is about 11 hours drive from Summit County.
When lawmakers contacted Oswalt’s mother, she was able to confirm his identity with a birthmark on his neck.
Oswalt’s stepfather, Gerald Flint, and his grandfather drove four hours from their current home in Idaho Falls to Park City to identify him personally and reunite.
“Everyone in the room was in tears. “They went over and worked hours,” Flint told KCRA.
“They could have rejected it, but they didn’t, and that made everything different in the world.”
After Flint identified Oswalt from his photo, he called his mother to break the emotional news.
In a video received from CNN, Oswalt’s mother can be heard emotionally receiving news of her son’s return.
“My darling is alive,” said Susan Flint, Oswalt’s mother, as she wept.
“There was no dry eye in the room,” Martinez told CBS. “They reunited with this man they hadn’t seen in three years when he was 16. Now he’s 19.”
Oswalt’s family is looking forward to his return home soon, as he is still receiving care and resources in Utah by Saturday night.
Although Summit County officials said the boy appeared to have lived on the street for about two weeks, his whereabouts have remained unclear for the past two years.
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Oswalt was diagnosed with autism in 2014. Credit: Summit County Sheriff
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