BRADFORD COUNTY, Fla. – An 18-year-old boy with a reduced mental capacity who was missing since Sunday evening has been found safe, the Bradford County Sheriff's Office said.
Bradford deputies said James Olin Jr. walked up to a Gainesville fire station after seeing himself on TV and asked for help Tuesday morning.
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He was OK, but was taken to a Gainesville medical facility as a precaution, deputies said.
His parents drove to Gainesville after getting the good news from Sheriff Gordon Smith to be reunited with their son.
Deputies had searched the woods off State Road 100, not far from where James was last seen and where he lives with his parents.
James had last been seen walking along State Road 100 near his home in the Crosby and Sampson Lake area, just west of Starke.
The teen, who also goes by the nickname "Turtle," is 18 years old but has the mental capacity of an 8-year-old and takes medication, so when he went missing his parents were worried sick about his safety, officials said.
James had previously disappeared three months ago but was found down the road shortly after by a deputy at Walmart. This time, James was missing for two days, and his family was frightened for his safety.
“It started to get dark, and he wasn’t here,” James' mother, Angela Olin, said. “You can’t imagine the fear and the pain we were feeling.”
A nighttime aerial search with infrared cameras found no signs of the young man, and his status was changed to missing endangered because of the length of time he had gone without any medication, deputies said.
Ground search personnel were out Tuesday morning, as well as boats on the nearby lakes.
But the search ended Tuesday morning when James walked into an Alachua County fire station.
“He went up to a fire station, asked for food and water because he wasn’t feeling well and asked to be stabilized with his medications,” said Capt. Brad Smith, chief of operations at the Bradford County Sheriff's Office.
James' family said he hitchhiked his way to Gainesville.
The Sheriff's Office said the family "wished to extend their heartfelt thanks for everyone's support."