Updated: Andy Allen, missing ORHS senior, had been lost in woods

Posted at 8:55 am September 2, 2014
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Andy Allen

Note: This story was updated at 11:20 a.m.

Andy Allen, the 17-year-old Oak Ridge High School senior who had been missing since Saturday night, has been found safe after getting lost in the woods, authorities said Tuesday morning.

Allen told deputies that he was unable to find his way out of the woods, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office said.

Allen had been missing since early Sunday morning after leaving his father’s home in west Knox County on foot. He was reunited with his parents on Tuesday morning.

The Knox County Sheriff’s Office said a witness saw Allen walk out of the woods on Hart Road in Knox County around 8 a.m. He then walked to the Weigel’s on Northshore Drive off Pellissippi Parkway.

“A second person identified him and called 911,” the Sheriff’s Office said. “When Knox County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived, he had been taken to a back room at the store. Rural Metro examined him and then he was sent home with his parents.”

Allen, who lives in Oak Ridge with his mother Barb, was last seen leaving his father’s house on foot after a reported confrontation in west Knox County at about midnight Saturday. His father, Kevin Allen, is an assistant district attorney general for Knox County and lives at Westland and Northshore drives off Pellissippi Parkway.

The last ping from Andy Allen’s cell phone was received at about 3 a.m. Sunday near Concord Park, family friend Betsy Coleman said Monday. Volunteers started searching for the teenager there on Monday morning. They were assisted by the Knox County Sheriff’s Office.

Missing person flyers were posted around Oak Ridge on Monday (Labor Day), including on utility poles and businesses.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

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