Missing Wis. 5-year-old boy is found safe

Officials in Pierce County in western Wisconsin say an autistic boy missing since about noon Tuesday was back with his family and was found in good condition.

A volunteer and his dog found the boy, 5-year-old Scotty Meyer. Jason Moser, 32, of Ellsworth, a town about 15 minutes away from where Scotty went missing, joined the search Tuesday after seeing news of the missing boy on television.

Moser says he went back to the forested search area by himself early Wednesday morning. He was walking in the woods when his golden retriever started whimpering and pulling on the leash.

"I could hear him, and it was just the sound of a boy, a little kid out there," Moser says. "I ran as fast as I could and got up to him. The first thing he did was grab my bottle of water. And I talked to him, just kind of comforted him a little bit."

Moser says the boy was dirty, tired and scratched up but otherwise fine. WCCO reported that the boy slipped out of the house while his home's air conditioner was being repaired.

Moser added that Autumn, his 8-year-old golden retriever, has already received four ham sandwiches as a reward. "I think she knows something good's going on," he says, "but she'll get a good bath and probably another nice dinner tonight."

He adds that Autumn is not trained as a searcher but that she's used to children because the family has a 4-year-old child.

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