{"id":179581,"date":"2026-03-05T18:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/179581\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T18:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:10:08","slug":"missing-teen-with-autism-located-by-police-k9-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/179581\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing teen with autism located by police K9 in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 Florida police said a K9 led officers to a 13-year-old boy with autism who was missing for several hours.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">A missing boy was safely recovered Monday in Fort Pierce following a coordinated search by local law enforcement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">The teenager was located after an hour-long K9 track led officers to a wooded area alongside a railroad track.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">The Fort Pierce Police Department responded to the initial missing child report just after 5 p.m. in the 2700 block of U.S. Highway 1. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">After several officers searched the area, investigators located surveillance video showing the boy walking toward a neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">Port St. Lucie K9 Officer Burdick and K9 Hoot, a bloodhound, were deployed to the scene to track the 13-year-old\u2019s scent. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">While the K9 team worked on the ground, the Fort Pierce Police Department Drone Unit searched the area from the air.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">The teen was eventually found in the brush of a wooded area alongside a railroad track. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">The combined efforts of the ground and air units allowed officers to reach the boy and bring him home safely.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\">Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\">click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wftvapps.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772734208_587_APP DOWNLOAD LOCAL_1541693885678.jpg_13622062_ver1.0.jpg\" width=\"100%\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 Florida police said a K9 led officers to a 13-year-old boy with autism who&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[84917,28,30,29,20996,3192,84916,84915,84914],"class_list":["post-179581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-drone-unit","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-fort-pierce-police-department","tag-james-tutten","tag-k9-hoot","tag-k9-track","tag-missing-boy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}