A six-year-old boy with autism who vanished into the wooded hills of Lawrence County was found alive on Tuesday, November 3, after three days missing, according to accounts provided to the Lexington Herald Leader and a public statement from the county's emergency management director.
Roman Heilman was reported missing in the late afternoon on Sunday, November 1. Volunteers began searching at first light on Tuesday, covering roughly 14 miles of the mountainous, tree-covered terrain before the breakthrough came.
Jacob Mullins, a member of a local horse trailriding group whose members live on both sides of the Kentucky-West Virginia state line, spotted the boy approximately a half-mile from Heilman's home, by Mullins's initial estimate, and about a mile and a half from the house by his later account. The child emerged from the brush onto a horse trail with a small dog at his side, singing.
"He came out of the bushes saying 'E-I-E-I-O horsey.' He just walked right out of the bushes onto a horse trail," Mullins told the Lexington Herald Leader. "He was naked, and he was scratched, and he had a little dog with him. He ate a banana and drank some water and then we brought him off the hill."
According to Mullins, the boy then clung to the leg of the lead rescuer and would not let go. Mullins is one of 10 members of the horseback group.
The search drew "hundreds" of volunteers, among them additional mounted teams and drone operators. Motor vehicles also joined the effort, and Mullins suggested that engine noise may have driven the boy into hiding and delayed an earlier recovery. Lawrence County authorities had learned on Sunday that the child had taken off his clothes at some point, a detail that heightened concern as he faced two nights in the cold.
Travis Hughes, Director of Lawrence County Emergency Management, issued a statement on Facebook after the rescue in which he said he had "never been more proud" of the community.
"What happened over the course of this search was nothing short of a miracle, and I praise God for that," Hughes said in the statement. "It was also an incredible, overwhelming effort from so many people who came together with one common goal."
"I have always said that when something happens here in Lawrence County, our people come together. But what I witnessed during this search was truly something special," Hughes said in the same Facebook statement.
The rescue underscores the particular risks that children with autism face near rural terrain and the value of rapid, large-scale community mobilization. For families in Lawrence County and neighboring communities along the state line, the outcome stands as a reminder of what coordinated volunteer response can accomplish when hours matter.
