Prairie Grove police officers and others spent many hours over the weekend searching for a runaway teenager, said Capt. Jeff O'Brien on Monday morning.
The 14-year-old boy, a student at Prairie Grove Middle School, was reported as a runaway at 3:30 p.m. Thursday. O'Brien said officers searched from Thursday night through all day Saturday.
The boy turned up at his uncle's apartment Saturday evening.
"We spent lots of hours tracking the kid," O'Brien said.
Normally, the police department does not spend time on a runaway, O'Brien said. This time, he noted, the boy was believed to be alone and officers were confident he was outside in the area.
"The temperatures were dropping and for his safety we wanted to find him," O'Brien said.
The search team included members of Prairie Grove Fire Department, city employees, individual volunteers and family members. Most of the search was around the Illinois River, Kate Smith Creek and the Muddy Fork of the Illinois River.
"He was in and out of different areas. He got all over the place," O'Brien said.
General News on 10/07/2015