Law enforcement, volunteers team up, find runaway

The Hill County Sheriff’s Office, Havre Police Department and U.S. Border Patrol again worked together in a cooperative effort to respond to a local emergency, Border Patrol said in a press release.

The three agencies and the Hill County Search and Rescue team searched last Thursday for a runaway juvenile. Avolunteer searcher found the juvenile 10 miles away from his home north of Havre.

“Working together during incidents such as this one shows how local and federal agencies are able to coordinate efforts to keep our communities and residents safe,” Hill County Sheriff and Coroner Don Brostrom said in the release. “My deputies, together with the Border Patrol agents, Hill County Search and Rescue, and officers from the Havre Police Department, were able to locate this missing juvenile and get him home safely before the situation became critical.”

The search started after someone called the sheriff’s office to say the juvenile, who is not named in the release, had walked away from home. The sheriff’s office established a command center for the search, and activated the Hill County Search and Rescue. Personnel also requested assistance from the Havre Police Department as well as the Havre Border Patrol Station.

Border Patrol agents responded and were able to establish a direction of travel based off tracks they located near the juvenile’s home, the release says. The missing runaway was found late that night by a volunteer searcher approximately 10 miles from home. The juvenile told a sheriff’s deputy that he had been hiding from the searchers when he saw their lights approaching. He eventually found a main road and was walking toward town when he was found.

After being checked out by sheriff’s office personnel he was reunited with his family.