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Missing boy may be in Atlanta

• Officials say they believe an Augusta boy who was reported missing in Albany may now be in Atlanta.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — The head of an international missing children’s organization said Wednesday he thinks a student who was reported missing from Turner Job Corps in late September is likely in Atlanta.

Committee for Missing Children CEO David Thelen said Wednesday that, while he’s not “100 percent sure” 16-year-old Chad Edwards ran away, it’s very possible that on the return trip from Albany to Atlanta the shame of being sent home from Turner Job Corps may have caused him to avoid his family.

“The only thing I can think of is a pride thing,” Thelen said. “We know he wanted to be like his dad (who is retired from the U.S. Army). I just think this was too much of a disappointment. I think it was a last straw; he didn’t want to face his mother and father.”

Edwards was last seen getting on a bus bound from Albany to Augusta with a layover in Atlanta. He had been expelled from TJC after being there about a week. A TJC safety officer watched as the boy got on the bus and left, TJC spokeswoman Courtenay Thomas said Wednesday.

Thomas said the school contacted the family when officials realized the student did not arrive at his Augusta home on time.

“Upon learning the student did not arrive home at the scheduled time, follow-up contacts to family and known friends were made,” Thomas said in a prepared statement. “Center staff has been and remains in contact with Mr. Edwards’ parents and authorities.”

Edwards’ mother says, though, that she had to call the school first to find out where her son was, and she has run into nothing but a wall when trying to get information from the school.

“I was the one to reach out to find out why this child did not arrive on the bus that morning (that he was supposed to arrive),” she said. “No one ever called us.”

Fay Edwards said she checked with four Greyhound Bus employees to see if anyone named Chad Edwards was a passenger on their bus line, and all of them said no passenger was listed under that name. Once she met with TJC officials Tuesday, she was given a confirmation number with the bus line that showed “Edwards, Chad” was a passenger bound from Albany to Augusta.

Thomas said a lift coupon from Albany to Atlanta was used, showing that Edwards got at least that far. Officials are still checking to see if Edwards made it any farther than Atlanta, she said.

The school remains committed to finding Chad Edwards, Thomas said.

“From a local, regional and national level, we are wanting to exhaust any resources that we have available to assist the family in finding this young man,” Thomas said in a phone interview. “I just want to make sure you keep the focus on the real issue, and that is finding this young man.”

Thelen pointed out that about 400,000 juveniles are entered into the National Crime Information Center annually, about 89 percent of whom return safely to their families.

“He (Chad Edwards) has access to food and shelter, so he’s comfortable, or someone has him,” Thelen said. “The main thing is to get his picture out there in a positive way, so that someone who knows him will call.”

Albany Police Department spokesman Lt. Kenn Singleton said that, in general, once a juvenile is reported missing, the youth is immediately entered into the NCIC and the Georgia Crime Information Center. The department also conducts interviews with any last known contacts of the missing child as well as tries to contact people where police think he or she may be, Singleton said.

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