Days After Abandoned Car Leaves Family Fearing the Worst, Missing Teen Is Found Alive
Any time the police get involved with a situation, you know it’s serious. But to my mind, missing persons’ cases carry a greater weight than other sorts of investigations.
Most of these cases get resolved pretty quickly. NPR pointed out that only 2,079 of the 661,000 people who went missing in 2012 stayed missing.
Still, the loved ones of a missing person experience a particular kind of terror: What if the individual actually does disappear into the void?
A South Florida family knows exactly how that feels after 19-year-old Justin Dean Shields from Miami-Dade county went missing.
Shields did what so many young Floridians do when it comes time to go to college. He enrolled at Florida State University, one of the Sunshine State’s largest schools.
His parents told WSVN that he was struggling through many of the same issues that young people experience when living alone for the first time. Yet for some reason, he disappeared on Sept. 5.
“We were just talking about school and what he was doing,” his mother, Ann Farrar, said. “He’s starting to cook because he doesn’t have a meal plan, so I was just asking him what he was making, making sure that he was eating right …
“He was a good student, very wonderful child, loves to work out and take care of himself and eat right … He worked really, really hard to get into FSU.”
WTSP reported that on the first Wednesday in September, Shields vanished. Police would later find his car near Old Magnolia Road in a wooded and isolated area.
Authorities turned away volunteers who wanted to help look for Shields, saying they may compromise the search. Why? They were using dogs to try and find the young man.
“Our K-9s are scent oriented, and an influx of people may compromise the search,” the Leon County Sheriff’s Office stated. “We will keep you updated on efforts and if or when they shift.”
Fortunately, they didn’t have to. As dire as a dog-only search might sound, it paid off just four days after he went missing.
“WE FOUND HIM…ALIVE!!!” the Sheriff’s Office tweeted on September 9. In addition to a K-9 unit, the search had also involved Florida State University police and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, WTVJ reported.
Shields was found miles away from the main road and was dehydrated and required hospitalization, according to the Miami Herald. But he is expected to fully recover.
“My brother, Justin Shields, has been found alive,” his sister, Ashley, wrote on Twitter. “Thank everyone so much for helping us search.
“We couldn’t have done this without you all and the lord. God is more than good.”
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