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“My 11-year-old ran away again,” he can be heard saying on the 9-1-1 call. “We can’t find him.”
Deputies immediately began to search for the boy, said Maj. Christopher Clark with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. After several hours passed with no sign of Perry, he said, they called other local agencies for help.
“It was pretty urgent for us,” Clark said. “There’s a lot of wooded areas out there so there was a big sense of urgency for us.”
More than 100 people from several agencies showed up to assist with the search, he said, including the Bethel Twp. Fire Department, Miami County Sheriff’s Office, Champaign County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.
“Throughout the day we kept stepping it up,” Clark said, “bringing more resources in, more people in to help search. Because we also knew the more time that passed, the further away he could be from the home.”
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Deputies would have made the same efforts to find any child in his situation, Clark said, and didn’t provide Perry special treatment because he’s the son of a deputy.
Perry was found hiding in a bush about 8:30 p.m. Thursday in Christiansburg, Clark said, about 5 miles from his home. He was tired but in good condition, he said.
Bethel Twp. Fire Chief Jacob King said on Thursday that the boy has a disability that might have provoked him to run away called oppositional defiant disorder. ODD affects children, generally in their adolescence, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Perry was charged with being an unruly juvenile and inducing panic. Clark estimated the search probably cost tens of thousands of dollars.
“It was necessary because it was an action that he caused … It was an intentional act by him and intentional acts bring consequences,” Clark said.
Perry appeared in juvenile court on Friday morning and made an admission of responsibility for the charges. He’s been released from the detention center and will participate in a diversion program, Clark County Juvenile Judge Joseph Monnin said.
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