Boy who wandered off may face charges after search

WARREN

The boy who went missing for about 10 hours Wednesday may face a criminal charge for causing so much concern for family members and law enforcement who spent hours searching for him.

When Adam Burgard, 15, of Cadwallader Sonk Road in Cortland was found at about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in southern Ashtabula County, he at first said he’d been kidnapped, but later admitted that he had just wandered off and no one had done anything to him, Trumbull County Sheriff Thomas Altiere said today.

The boy went home with his parents and is fine, Altiere said.

Burgard went missing after going on a run with nine of his Maplewood High School cross country teammates, who started running at about 8:40 a.m. and finished at 9:40 a.m. in northern Trumbull County just west of state Route 11.

Burgard fell behind his teammmates and continued on his own, the sheriff’s office said in a police report. He was found in a wooded area a couple miles from where he separated from his teammates, still wearing the same clothes he had been wearing to run, Altiere said.