Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
HYRUM — Cache County Sheriff's deputies found an 8-year-old boy they had been looking for at a friend's house Friday night.
Authorities say Eric Jeppesen was last seen getting off a school bus at 2:30 Friday afternoon. When he didn't return home, his parents contacted police.
An Endangered Person Advisory was eventually issued for Jeppesen, and search and rescue teams began looking for him. He was found just after 8 p.m.
"We had an individual approach one of the teams saying that '(We) think we have the little boy they're looking for;' and it turned out that he was with his friend and he was getting ready to have a sleepover that night," said Cache County Sheriff's Lt. Brian Lock.
"We treat every case as if the child is missing and we need to bring him home, and so we start at ground zero and we build from there," said Lt. Brad Franke, with the local Child Abduction Response Team.
"A vast majority of actual abductions with children come in as overdue juveniles," Franke continued, "so we're never going to assume because a child is late coming home from school that he's just at a friend's house."
Authorities also the reverse 911 system to get the word out about the missing boy. They say everything worked well, and they're happy to have the boy home safe.
Email: jdaley@ksl.com
