Boy lost near Mount St. Helens emerges OK
Monday, August 4, 2008 11:37 PM PDT
By Tony Lystra
Printable version
E-mail this articleAn 11-year-old autistic boy missing for nearly 36 hours near Mount St. Helens walked out of the woods Monday morning about three miles from where he had been last seen, according to the Skamania County Sheriff's Office.
Alex Irvin of Portland was in "really good physical shape," Undersheriff Dave Cox said. "He was just real hungry. We were really fortunate with this."
Nearly 70 people scoured an area around the Siouxon Trail on the ground and from the air without seeing the boy. Just before 6 a.m., as a dog team prepared to renew the search, Alex stepped out of the woods, Cox said.
Alex and his father, Bruce Irvin, went hiking Saturday about eight miles east of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument headquarters in Chelatchie Prairie.
"With his autism, Dad had taken him out to get him used to being farther away from him," Cox said. "It was basically an exercise. Dad would hold back and (Alex) would go up to the first falls, and Dad would catch up to him."
But, Cox said, when Bruce Irwin arrived at the third falls along the trail around 5 p.m., "Alex wasn't around."
Bruce Irvin searched until sunset and then called authorities.
Cox said authorities suspect Alex was near the searchers all along, but didn't reveal himself.
"That was a long time for a young man like that to spend out in the woods," Cox said. "He's a gutsy little guy."
Search and rescue teams from Cowlitz, Clark, Yakima and Pierce counties looked for the boy. A Washington Air National Guard helicopter and a Washington State Patrol airplane also joined the effort.
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