Authorities have located a 14-year-old White County boy who went missing Tuesday evening. The youth, Aiden Daniel, was safely located at 11:12 a.m. Wednesday, the White County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) says.
The sheriff’s office posted about the search on its Facebook page asking people to be on the lookout for the teen, who disappeared in the area of Highway 129 South and Noel Ayers Road. The WCSO began their search for Daniel around 7 p.m. on Tuesday. The sheriff’s office later classified his disappearance as a “runaway situation.”
The social media post asking for the public’s help to locate the boy was shared over a thousand times before his location on Wednesday.
Searchers with the White County sheriff’s office, fire, and emergency management agency fanned out looking for the boy. They called off their search just after midnight but resumed early Wednesday, going door to door asking if anyone had seen him. K9 units were called in to assist and the county issued a CODE RED alert call to those living within a four-mile radius of the search area.
According to WCSO Captain Clay Hammond, Daniel was found safe outside “in the same area” where he was reported missing.
“Personnel from [the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia State Patrol, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, White County Fire Department, White County Community Emergency Response Team, Georgia Emergency Management and the Department of Corrections] covered a lot of rough terrain searching for Aiden, who was found safe around 11 a.m. this morning,” Hammond said. “The Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the agencies involved.”
Dean Dyer of WRWH News contributed to this report
