Missing California teen Connerjack Oswalt, who disappeared in 2019 when he was 16 years old, was found in Utah and reunited with his family. Body camera footage, obtained by KSTU, captured the emotional moments.
Oswalt, now 19-years-old was reported missing out of Clearlake, CA, on September 29, 2019, the outlet noted.
SFGate reported:
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System says that Oswalt, who was diagnosed with autism in 2014, had “a history of running away.” Prior to his disappearance in September 2019, NamUs reported that he went missing in May of the same year after his mother took his phone away; he fled his home in Clearlake, taking only his cat.
Recently, citizens began alerting the Summit County Sheriff’s Office in Utah to a man who was pushing around a carriage near Kimball Junction, the SCSO said in a Facebook post:
Deputies responded each time and offered services to the young man, who was NOT violating any laws – he refused any help. Finally, on Saturday April 9th, a truly concerned community member contacted us after seeing the young man sleeping at the Jeremy Store in Jeremy Ranch. Summit County Sheriff’s Deputies quickly responded and found a cold young man.
Body camera footage shows a pair of deputies approaching Oswalt in front of the establishment.
One of the deputies noticed he was shivering and offered a seat in the patrol vehicle to warm up, the video shows. Oswalt joined them in the patrol car but would not identify himself, according to KSTU. He did, however, allow the deputies to run his fingerprint, which turned up a warrant in Nevada.
Summit County Sheriff Justin Martinez said his deputies felt there was “more to the story,” noting that “this individual is being resistant, reluctant to communicate.”
Authorities scoured the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children database and eventually found the teen’s name, KSTU reported. Deputies alerted Oswalt’s family, and his stepfather, Gerald Flint, immediately hopped in his car and made the trip from Idaho – where the family recently moved as a result of wildfire damage to their California home – to Park City, Utah.
Emotional body camera footage shows Flint apparently talking with family and confirming that the man is indeed Connerjack, just “a little bit older.”
“There wasn’t a dry eye in the room and we’re talking law enforcement, family members, they been reunited with this individual they haven’t seen for three years when he was 16, he’s now 19,” Martinez said.