AGNEW — A 10-year-old boy who had been missing since Tuesday has been located, the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office said.
The Sheriff’s Office and partnering agencies had been searching for Mason Combs, who had been seen last south of U.S. Highway 101 near Blue Mountain Road. According to the Sheriff’s Office, he had been playing in the area with a group of children Tuesday afternoon and was then seen running into the woods at about 4 p.m.
About 12:47 p.m. Wednesday, search teams located Combs in a playhouse on the front porch of his residence. The Sheriff’s Office said they believed Combs had been avoiding detection, as the playhouse had been searched several times prior to his discovery.
Clallam County Sheriff Brian King said Combs was transported to Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles for evaluation due to some underlying health challenges.
Early Wednesday afternoon, King said Combs had been “pretty tight-lipped right now as to what he’s been up to.”
However, King said law enforcement officers’ best guess is that Combs had been having too much fun to come home.
“He was enjoying his best life and didn’t want to come home,” King said.
Neighboring agencies provided additional support in the search-and-rescue mission, with Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies providing a drone, the King County Sheriff’s Office providing air support and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office providing dog teams.
A total of 44 volunteers participated in search efforts. Island County, the U.S. Border Patrol, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, the state Department of Natural Resources and Olympic Mountain Rescue also provided search and rescue assets, according to a press release.
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
