A 46-year-old mother and her 5-year-old son wept together upon being reunited at the Law Enforcement Center (LEC) Thursday morning.

Friday, August 13, 1999

A 46-year-old mother and her 5-year-old son wept together upon being reunited at the Law Enforcement Center (LEC) Thursday morning.

They’d been separated for nearly 12 hours, after the mother forgot him when she left the Mower County Fair with the rest of her family Wednesday evening.

The fair posse – a volunteer security force trained by the Mower County Sheriff’s Department – spotted the youngster while patrolling the fair atop horses at around 10:30 p.m.

The boy was taken into temporary foster care, while authorities searched for a white van with Arizona plates, a description provided by the boy. Fair parking lots and all of the local hotels and motels were searched while a description of the van was sent out to surrounding counties.

The vehicle wasn’t found because it was parked on a dead end road in Austin, at the boy’s grandmother’s residence. The boy was not able to tell police exactly where his grandmother lived.

The family was in Austin visiting the grandmother. The boy’s mother attended the fair with eight of her children and another child. The children range in age from 4 to 18.

According to the sheriff’s report, the woman called the LEC "terrified," after noticing her son missing at breakfast.

The woman reported to the LEC, where she was interviewed by deputies before being reunited with her son.

Sheriff Barry Simonson said the woman was "very grateful." Because of the happy ending, Simonson said, "It’ll probably go down in family lore."

The report is being sent to Human Services in Apache County, Ariz., where the woman and her children reside.

"It’s their jurisdiction and job to follow-up to make sure it’s not a regular occurrence," Simonson said.