Autistic Boy Found After Wandering From a Family Hike

Filed in archive Outdoor News on October 18, 2007

The 18-year-old autistic who has been lost in the forest for four days has been found. According to an article on Yahoo!, Jacob Allen wandered away from his parents on Sunday in the Monongahela National Forest during a family hike. Searchers found him napping and gave him candy to coax him out of the woods. He survived without food or water. What's more, he was the mental capacity of a 3 or 4 year old child. Thankfully, he was unharmed.

"The family is all together," search group spokesman Chris Stadelman said. "As soon as they heard the report he was alive and doing fairly well, they gathered in a prayer circle."

Allen was in good condition Thursday night at Davis Memorial Hospital in Elkins, where he was to be kept overnight for observation, hospital spokesman Bill Phillips said.

"I think the whole state's relieved," said Lara Ramsburg, spokeswoman for Gov. Joe Manchin, who visited the Allen family Wednesday night. "We're all relieved for him and his family."

Allen wandered away from his parents Sunday afternoon. Hundreds of volunteers and trained professionals had been combing the woods, calling for him to come to them for candy bars, ice cream and other food.

Allen had no food or water with him, but Stadelman had said there were natural water sources in the search area, which consists of about 10 square miles of often steep and brush-covered terrain.

Overnight temperatures dropped to as low as 38 degrees on the nights Allen was missing. He was wearing hiking boots, a long-sleeved T-shirt, a wind jacket and wind pants.