Anthony Mancuso, a Vancouver teen who was missing for more than 24 hours after going on a hike with family, was found by searchers around 9:15 p.m. Monday.
He is alive and is walking out with searchers, according to the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office.
Cowlitz County Search and Rescue personnel located Anthony’s shoes in the early evening hours approximately 150 yards from where he was last seen Sunday near Mount St. Helens, the sheriff’s office wrote on social media. They continued to search in the same general direction and located him.
Sheriff Brad Thurman said in an email that deputies were dispatched around 3 p.m. Sunday for the report of a missing person near Hummocks Trail off Spirit Lake Highway.
The mother of Anthony Mancuso, 16, told deputies her son had stepped off the trail and did not return.
According to social media posts by family, he did not have water or food and was not dressed for inclement weather.
Washington State Patrol troopers, Department of Fish and Wildlife officials and deputies began searching the area within an hour of receiving the missing person call. They searched on foot and used a drone with an infrared radar but were unsuccessful.
An official search and rescue response was then activated with the help of a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter. The search efforts were called off around 1 a.m. Monday.
Search teams were back out Monday starting at 8 a.m. Searchers from Clark County have joined the efforts and brought along a bloodhound, according to the sheriff. A helicopter and a U.S. Air Force rescue squadron from Portland are searching from the skies.
The Cowlitz County Department of Emergency Management said volunteers had been requested to assist, but there are enough family members and friends of the teen to help. There are nearly 50 people currently searching for Mancuso, officials said.
“Unless you are a member of a qualified search and rescue organization, we ask that you please not self-activate at this time,” the department said.
