Prescott (WQOW)- "I have a relative who has autism so I do have a little bit of a bounce on it," says Pierce County Sheriff Nancy Hove.
There is a sense of urgency anytime someone goes missing, but in this case, the disappearance of five-year-old Scotty Meyer had a unique set of circumstances. Hove says it didn't take long before they were contacted by autism experts.
"We were talking with people that deal with kids with autism, things that they would like, things that they wouldn't like," Hove explains. "With Scotty, he could hear, but couldn't talk. He could scream a little bit and that's what Mr. Moser picked up on but that's a big thing. You can't really holler out for him and ask him to answer back."
Jason Moser and his dog, Autumn, found Scotty on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, 21 hours after he disappeared. Moser was among the more than 1,000 people who volunteered to search on the Fourth of July.
"It's wonderful we had turnout. We live in a great community. We have surrounding communities that are super," Hove remembers. "There were people from all over the state of Wisconsin, Minnesota, I think even Illinois. A lot of people only had the one day off and they committed that one day, that's where they were going to be and having the large amount of people, we could switch people in and out, which was very, very nice."
The support also came from businesses, which donated supplies to help keep search crews fresh.
"We had water, ice, tents set up," smiles Hove. "People just came in with everything and just set it out there for people; food, more than you can imagine. It was just overwhelming, just the response. Many of us didn't sleep between the nights. We went home for about two hours; got two hours of sleep, a shower, then came back so just kept going. It was like, we are going to find him."
Which they did thanks to an incredible community effort.
Sheriff Hove wants to once again thank all of the volunteers and agencies that helped in the search and rescue.
