UPDATE: Josh Jeanette has been found. Look to the Wednesday edition of the Sun-Times for full details. The information below is the original story published on the website Tuesday morning.
Josh Jeanette, 16, of Heber Springs walked away from his Blakey Road home late Monday morning, and as of press time Tuesday, had not been located. “Josh is autistic and is nervous around people he’s not used to,” said Cleburne County Sheriff Marty Moss. “He is approximately five feet tall, weighs around 100 pounds, has brown hair, hazel eyes, and is medium build.”
Jeanette was last seen wearing a redish shirt with gold lettering, blue jeans, and hiking boots.
Search crews with the Pine Snag Fire Department and Cleburne County Search and Rescue team were called to the area around 2:15 p.m. Monday after efforts by family to find the boy were unsuccessful. Baptist MedFlight was in the area for a ceremony at Baptist Health Heber Springs and assisted in the search efforts late Monday afternoon.
Mark Derrickson of Tumbling Shoals brought his search dog to the home. The dog tracked the boy for a few miles east of the residence through wooded areas. The Faulkner County Sheriff’s Department brought their helicopter to the area later Monday evening and search dogs from the prison at Calico Rock were also brought to the scene.
The helicopter crew had poor ground visibility due to the weather and the prison dogs tracked the same area as the first dog, but reportedly lost the trail near Hwy 16, east of the residence. The search was halted sometime after midnight Monday.
Nearly 60 volunteers began converging on the area around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday to resume the search. An additional canine search team was reportedly brought to the scene to assist. Volunteers from numerous fire departments, forestry, state police, and others were divided into teams with team leaders and were in the process of conducting a ground search as of press time.
