Her Teen Son Went Missing 3 Years Ago, Police Found Him Living On The Streets 2 States Away

When he was just a sixteen-year-old boy, Connerjack Oswalt disappeared from his home in Clearlake, California. That was back on September. Oswalt, who suffered from autism, disappeared from his family and was not heard from for years – until police learned that he was residing outside of a Park City, Utah, gas station. Now, emotional body-camera footage depicts the moment when Oswalt’s mother is reunited with the teen three years after he was first reported missing.

Although it is unclear what the teen has been doing for the last three years of his life, he was recently found shivering outside of a Park City, Utah, gas station, which was more than seven hundred miles from his family’s home in California. The situation revolving around the autistic teen remains an active investigation as authorities try to figure out why he went missing and what has happened to him since he departed.

Oswalt was first diagnosed with autism in 2014 – five years before he went missing. He was spotted in Utah by Summit County Sheriff’s Deputies, who found him shivering late at night in the cold, holed up outside of a gas station. Prior to confronting the freezing teen, the officers had received reports that the boy had been wandering around Park City with a shopping cart for weeks – while trying to survive the blistering cold from the Utah winter.

At first, the vagrant teen refused help. But when authorities approached him again on Saturday, he finally opened up and accepted their help with grace. This helped him reconnect with his loving family, that wanted to know where he had gone for the last three years.

“You look like you’re shivering,” the Utah officers said as they approached the shivering teenage vagrant. “You cold? Do you want to come sit in his car and warm up for a minute? We can’t have you sitting in front of the door here all night.”

The officers welcomed the teen into their squad car and offered him a chance to warm up. While he was accepting their generosity, they grilled him about his identity and what he was doing alone in Utah. During the questioning, police asked the teenager if he would be willing to have his fingerprints scanned for the record – he agreed, and this helped connect him to his family.

Police officers found it bizarre that while they questioned the teenager, he “either refused or was unable to give them his name.” Perhaps, this had to do with him living with autism. Despite his resistance, the police officers tried to get the boy the care he so desperately needed. They even searched the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children database to see if anything came up.

Eventually, Oswalt was connected with his family. The boy’s stepfather traveled across two states to verify the boy’s identity. His mother remained home and spoke to the boy on speakerphone. She said her son had a “very distinctive birthmark on his neck,” which the police found.

As soon as the stepfather realizes that this is his missing son, he becomes very emotional.

Oswalt’s mother asks, “Is it him?”

“A little bit older, but yeah!” the stepfather responds.

“Oh wow! My sweetheart’s alive!” mother Suzanne cries. “Oh my God!”

Suzanne told CBS, “We searched all over California. We’re just grateful that he’s safe, and he’s alive, and we have our son back. That’s the most important thing ever for us.”