Missing 8-year-old Iola boy is found

A missing 8-year-old boy prompted a citywide search for about 90 minutes until the boy was spotted safe and sound at Walmart.
Iola Police Chief Jared Warner said the youngster walked out of school at Jefferson Elementary School at the end of the day, but instead of finding his parents parked nearby, left the area.
A crossing guard even remembered seeing the boy cross the street, Warner said.
After it became evident the boy was no longer at or near the school, the panicked parents called 911, which prompted an automated CODE RED call to residents in Allen County.
Several tipsters reported seeing the boy at two other stores along North State Street, Dollar General and Orscheln Farm & Home, before a customer at Walmart spotted the youngster there. That’s where officers picked him up and returned him to his family.
“The calls started coming in, which was a good thing,” Warner said, because it gave police a more precise search area. “He’d gone on quite a trip.”
Officers from the Allen County Sheriff’s Department and Kansas Highway Patrol aided in the search.
“Obviously, when you have a case like this, it starts the blood pumping pretty quickly,” Warner said. “Everybody wanted to find him as quickly as possible.”