ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – A 16-year-old St. Augustine boy with autism who had been missing since Saturday has been found safe -- and his mother and the St. Johns County sheriff learned the good news together during a live news conference.
Sheriff Rob Hardwick was sharing an update on the search efforts for Benjamin Adcock when someone got his attention in the crowd and let him know the teen had been found safe.
“Oh my goodness, gracious!” Hardwick said and immediately turned to the teen’s mom and hugged her, as she said, “Praise the Lord.”
Hardwick later shared that before the news conference, a group of volunteer searchers had gathered with deputies and the teen’s mom to pray, and she credited that with her son’s safe recovery.
REPLAY: Press play below to watch the news conference -- including the real-time good news moment
“She said, ‘I think it was the prayer we did’ over here together with this group behind me. Things happen in life for a reason,” Hardwick said.
He also thanked the media for sharing all the information the Sheriff’s Office had been putting out about Benjamin, explaining that an alert citizen who had seen the images spotted the teen, brought him safely into their home and called authorities.
NOTE: News4JAX would typically remove the teen’s name now that he’s been found, but because of the high-profile nature of the case, we are including it here.
“This has been going on, as you all know, since Saturday night. You’ve been putting out great information for us, but this is a citizen paying attention, not afraid to call St. John’s County Sheriff’s Office and bringing a 16 year old boy home to his mom,” Hardwick said.
The teen, who has wandered before, left his home in the area of Whispering Woods Lane around noon on Saturday and was spotted at a nearby Circle K, where he’s known to hang out.
A Florida Missing Child Spectrum Alert was issued for Benjamin, who has also been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Hardwick said he is the oldest of five siblings.
Video captured Benjamin crossing State Road 207, headed south, just after 12 p.m., and then a woman reported seeing him in the area between 1 and 2 p.m. Saturday.
After an unconfirmed sighting around 8:30 p.m. Saturday, no one had reported seeing Benjamin, and the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office set up a command center in the Epic Theater Plaza parking lot.
That’s where a group of volunteer searchers gathered around 9 a.m. Monday. But as they were getting instructions on how to best help investigators find Benjamin, they too got the good news that he was safe.
“I keep trying not to cry,” a volunteer said. “I keep getting that knot in my throat. You just can’t get rid of it because I’m overwhelmed for especially the mom just being able to have her son.”
Hardwick said the resident being alert brought the search to an end.
“Sometimes the people helping us just don’t know how important it is, but also too we don’t want them to become a victim to the woods and a snakebite or just something else,” Hardwick said, praising the group for coming out to help. “So they were just getting instructions to kind of break apart in groups now to look for Benjamin and the next thing you know, God brings Benjamin home.”
