A 19-year-old who disappeared from his family’s home in California almost three years ago he was found in Utah, to the astonishment and relief of his parents, who feared they would never see him again.
Connerjack Oswalt He was shivering and cold when officers found him sleeping at a convenience store in Los Angeles County on Saturday. Summitknown for its ski areas, said Sheriff Justin Martinez. Oswalt appeared to have been living on the streets for about two weeks.
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His family had searched for him for years, handing out flyers, scanning his pictures on social media, and desperately chasing clues to no avail. They even returned to the city of his birth, Idaho Falls, hoping that he would eventually return there.
“Any hint of anything remotely resembling it, we followed it up”said his stepfather, Gerald Flint. “It’s been a real nightmare.”
Oswalt, who was diagnosed with autism and other mental health conditions, was 17 when he left the Clearlake family home., California. His mother, Suzanne Flint, remembered making quesadillas, but when lunchtime came, he was gone.
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“I never stopped looking for it. There wasn’t a day that I wasn’t looking for him, in some way, shape or form.” said. The exact circumstances of his disappearance and his whereabouts over the past two years are under investigation, police said.
What his family does know is that after agents found Oswalt at the convenience store Utahthey asked him if he would like to come on his patrol. He agreed and eventually let the officers take his fingerprint.
That led to a February pending order in Nevada.
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“The officers just felt there was something there, something beyond a criminal warrant. There was a humanitarian effort that needed to be explored further.” Martinez said.
Officers went to work looking for reports of missing and endangered children. They found a missing person report from 2019 in Clearlake, California. Although she had a slightly different name than the one on the Nevada order, the photos matched and they called his family.
When the Flints first got the call, they were worried their son had been found dead.. After his wife confirmed the identification through a birthmark, Gerald Flint left work, got into his car and drove four hours to utah.
“Everyone in the room was crying,” said. “They could have ruled it out, but they didn’t and that made all the difference in the world.”
Social workers knowledgeable about the autism took over the care of Oswalt after meeting with his family, Summit County Sheriff’s Lt. Andrew Wright said. His family hopes to bring him back home soon.
“We don’t treat him like a criminal. We treated him like someone who has something deeper that we needed to dig into,” Martinez said. “That insight is what really brought this family together.”