Missing 9-Year-Old Boy Michael Campbell Found Safe
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A 9-year-old boy who was reported missing after he didn't come home from school on Tuesday has been found safe.
Police and relatives spent the night searching for Michael Campbell. He was turned up safe at home around 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, after apparently spending the night at a friend's house. He was taken to a hospital to be checked out as a precaution.
Michael lives only about a block away from Harvard Elementary School in Englewood. He was supposed to get home shortly after school ended Tuesday at 3 p.m., but his mother called police at 8:40 p.m. when he still hadn't made it home.
The boy's family noted his house at 74th and Harvard is along a Safe Passage route for the school at 75th and Harvard.
Police used spotlights and other equipment to search alleys and yards in the area overnight. Some of Michael's belongings were found in an alley, but he was not nearby.
His mother said he normally would get home from school no later than 4:15 p.m. When he didn't show up, at first his family thought maybe he received a detention, or might have stopped at a friend's house. Michael would often walk home from school with his 11-year-old brother, but at times they would leave school separately.
When Michael didn't show up by 4:45 p.m., they began to search for him themselves, and when that proved unsuccessful, they called 911.
"Mikey, try to find some way to get in contact with your parents; your mom, your dad, somebody, anybody. Baby, please, please come home," said his mother, Elmarita Fletcher.
His parents have been up all night, trying to track down their missing son, to no avail.
"I've checked everything that I had to check. My family, my mother, my sister. That's the only place that he go," Fletcher said.
Michael's aunt, Allison Campbell, said it is very out of character for him to not come home from school.
"He's only 9 years old. He's not the type of kid that strays away from home, and comes home later in the day. He's not that type of kid," she said.
