A 9-year-old Tennessee boy who ran away from home and vanished following a family disagreement has been found after two cold nights in the woods, according to reports.
Authorities found Jordan Allen Gorman about 3 p.m. Tuesday camped out near a creek bed about three-quarters of a mile from his home in Cheatham County, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said.
Reports said he was wearing no jacket nor shoes when he was found.
“Cold and hungry, but otherwise in pretty good spirits!” the bureau announced in an update on Twitter Tuesday. “Good to see you, Jordan!”
The boy apparently became lost and survived two days on his own after crafting a makeshift shelter out of a tarp that had been left behind in the woods, reports said.
He was last seen Sunday afternoon before fleeing his family’s home in Ashland City, about 30 minutes northwest of Nashville, according to NBC affiliate WSMV News4.
Investigators immediately issued an Endangered Child Alert but by Monday afternoon had raised the urgency to an Amber Alert, which is the national emergency response system in child abduction cases.
The Christian County Rescue Team from Kentucky found the boy the next day after chancing upon his blue tarp amid the barren landscape.
“As I got close to the tarp and noticed there was a mass in it, naturally the worst was going through my head initially until the tarp moved,” said rescuer Mathew Reese, according to NBC. “It was just the biggest holy crap, I got him.”
A photo shared by TBI on social media shows the boy being medically evaluated after the rescue, however, there was no official update on his condition.
No one could explain how the boy overcame temperatures in the low 20s around Nashville during the two nights he spent outdoors.
The boy’s father, Aaron Hatt, said he was amazed by his son’s uncanny experience, telling News4 that Jordan has autism and is protective of his two siblings.
“He’s always just been really resilient and an explorer type but to be standing for two days with no jacket, no shoes, no socks,” Hatt said. “It’s just crazy.”
