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Runner who wandered off in northern Trumbull County could face criminal charge
By Ed Runyan
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 about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in southern Ashtabula County, he at first said he’d been kidnapped, but later admitted he had just wandered off and no one had done anything to him, Trumbull County Sheriff Thomas Altiere said Thursday.
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 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 of miles from where he separated from his teammates, still wearing the same clothes he had been wearing to run, Altiere said.
The boy finally was discovered in the woods by two men who were checking their field cameras and flagged down troopers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Altiere said.
Investigators checked into the boy’s claim that he had been kidnapped and tied to a tree, but the hunters were able to provide a memory card from a camera showing that Burgard had walked into the woods as if there was “nothing going on,” Altiere said.
The boy then confessed that the story about being kidnapped was not true, Altiere said.
Burgard’s stepmother and Maplewood cross country coach Dave Deeter contacted the sheriff’s office at 1:51 p.m. to report Burgard missing. Deputies, coaches, teammmates and others started checking the last area where he’d been seen — Bunker Road — without luck.
Altiere said his office contacted the OSHP, which sent a helicopter to help with the “all-out search,” Altiere said. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office listed him as a missing child for several hours Wednesday evening.