Story of missing boys in Boalsburg has a happy ending
Right place. Right time.
It’s cliche, but it really is what happened in Boalsburg on Tuesday.
Another cliche: Having a child missing is a parent’s worst nightmare.
I know, because when I was young I occasionally gave my parents a scare. I’ve seen the tears pouring down my poor mom’s face and heard her say, “I was so worried,” if I didn’t make it home right after sundown.
I always made it back without there ever being a search, but she still worried, like any mother would.
Fast forward to Tuesday morning when State College police posted on Twitter that two boys, 7 and 9, were missing since about 7:30 a.m.
This was different from anything I have experienced in my own life or as a reporter, because there was a search for children.
Police posted descriptions of the boys about an hour after they were supposed to go to school. Officers were going door-to-door to talk with neighbors when I got to Ashworth Lane, admittedly, by following a WTAJ news van, assuming they knew where they were going.
Sure enough, we saw police and waited in the parking lot for updates, hoping for a good outcome.
What happened next is embarrassing, because I write the news. I do it in a way that leaves myself out of the story, and I pride myself in that.
But what happened next is also fortunate.
About three hours later, after the boys were last seen, I was the one who found them hiding under a blueberry bush about 50 yards from their home. I called 911, and led the boys out of the woods. Police took them back home.
I watched the boys walk away with several police officers as two more in blue took down my information and debriefed me.
Local TV stations then asked me for interviews.
It was becoming bigger than I wanted, but I also knew if I were in their shoes I’d ask them for an interview, too. I said OK.
So, I was a part of the story that I was covering, for the first time and hopefully the last.
It happened by chance at about 10:20 a.m. when I decided to take a walk on Ashworth Lane, which I had done before with WTAJ’s Mallory Lane to try to get an interview with someone from the police department.
I set out on foot again, alone, to try to find a police sergeant or lieutenant. Not to interview, just to talk.
Not far from the boys’ home, unknown to anyone, the boys were under the bush in a wooded area not visible from the street. As I walked on the road I heard a lawn mower in the distance turn off, leaving everything around me silent except for what sounded like a whisper and then leaves ruffling.
I looked up, couldn’t see anything, and the noises stopped.
Curious, I decided to walk up there, but the hill had too much brush to see or walk through. I knew from walking on the street earlier that there was a playground in the middle of the wooded area.
When I got to the playground I saw a winding path leading back toward where I’d heard the faint voices. I followed it until I saw two children crouching as low as they could about 10 yards away from me. The older one stood up.
“They found us,” he said to the younger one.
All I wished in that moment was that the boys wouldn’t run from me. If they bolted, there was only one direction to go — toward Earlystown Road.
Thankfully, they didn’t, and I asked if they were OK several times. They assured me they were, and I asked if they would walk with me back to the playground and back to the road. They obliged, and I called 911.
There was no interview, not even an attempt at one with the boys. It wasn’t the time for that, and it never will be when children go missing.
I didn’t want to write any of this, because it’s about my perspective of a story I was assigned to report on. It’s not supposed happen this way, but it did.
As a last note, I want to say I’m thankful that we are part of a community where police and neighbors actively looked for the boys. This is the kind of place I like to call home.
This story was originally published September 22, 2015 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Story of missing boys in Boalsburg has a happy ending."