A teenager who vanished nearly three years ago has been found alive outside a petrol station 780 miles away.
Connerjack Oswalt went missing on September 28, 2019 in Clearlake, California when he was just 16 years old.
The autistic teenager was reported missing to Clearlake Police Department the following day.
Last week police officers from Summit County Sheriff's Office were told of a homeless person pushing a shopping trolley in Park City, Utah - an unusual sight due to the harsh winters the town endures.
Police made contact with the person several times and offered to help him find shelter, but he always refused and would not give his name, NBC reported.
On April 9 a concerned member of the public called the police to report a man sleeping in the cold outside a petrol station.
They invited him into their car and scanned his fingerprints, which found a result suggesting he was wanted for assaulting a police officer in February, albeit with a slightly misspelt name.
The police officers decided to dig a little more and found a photo of Connerjack in the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children database.
His family drove from Idaho Falls, where they had relocated since his disappearance, to Utah to be reunited with him.
His mum, 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."
Oswalt's stepfather, Gerald Flint, added: "Honestly, I’m still dumbstruck by the situation. We've had a lot of false hope over the last two-and-a-half years."
It is not currently clear how long Connerjack had been in Utah for or why he originally disappeared.
“It boggles all of our minds,” Lt. Andrew Wright with the Summit County Sheriff’s Office said.
“It’s just a really miraculous discovery if you will.”
Talking of the moment Connerjack was reunited with his family, Sheriff Justin Martinez said: "There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. They’ve been reunited with this individual they haven’t seen for three years."
