Va. boy missing since Sunday found alive

An 8-year-old autistic boy missing since Sunday in central Virginia has been found alive, authorities confirmed Friday.

Robert Wood Jr. was located at about 2 p.m. roughly three-quarters of a mile to 1 mile from where he was last seen Sunday, when he wandered away from his family during a hike in the North Anna Battlefield Park in Hanover County.

“The search is over, the investigation continues and there are a lot of people to thank,” Hanover County Sheriff’s Department Col. David R. Hines said at an afternoon news conference.

Col. Hines described Robert’s condition as “serious, but in good shape,” adding that he was alert when searchers located him.

He said Robert was found in a gully, lying in the fetal position, just to the west of a stone quarry near the park. The boy was taken to a hospital and reunited with his family there.

Col. Hines thanked the agencies and the volunteers that participated in the search, adding that he encountered people from as far away as Alaska joining the search and that so many volunteers offered their services that some people had to be turned away.

“This is an effort by an entire region and possibly a state,” he said. “Whenever a child goes missing everyone wants to step up, and that’s what happened today.”

County police and fire crews and an estimated 1,200 volunteers spent days searching wooded areas for Robert, whom police said was last seen before his disappearance about 150 yards from the North Anna River.

Volunteers searched urgently Thursday for the boy, whom they said was not dressed for temperatures that dipped into the 30s overnight.

Search crews had no major leads on Robert’s location at the time, despite combing a 3.5-mile radius using night-vision goggles and sniffer dogs, and leaving several survival packs in the woods that went unclaimed.

Kim Taylor, a Hanover County resident who volunteered in the search Wednesday and Thursday, said searchers were growing increasingly anxious as days wore on without any sign of the boy, and as temperatures were expected to dip into the low-30s this weekend. She said search dogs frequently lost the boy’s scent near the North Anna River, leading to fears that he may have gone in the water.

She said she cried Friday when she heard Robert had been found alive.

“Everybody was still staying positive, but it wasn’t quite as positive as the days before. With each day, the gleam of hope was dwindling,” Ms. Taylor said. “The incredible thing to me is that we all want things to happen right away, but our timing and God’s timing isn’t always the same.”

Gov. Bob McDonnell on Friday also praised the search crews, saying they had achieved “the best possible result to a very difficult situation.”

“The actions of so many this week have demonstrated, yet again, that Virginians are good neighbors who care about each other and help those in need in times of trouble,” he said in a statement. “We are all thankful that Robert will be safely reunited with his family.”