Missing Boy Scout Found Alive

Michael Auberry, the 12-year-old Boy Scout missing for three nights in the damp, cool mountains of western North Carolina, has been found alive and in good condition, one of the searchers radioed in to the search commanders.

"There are a lot of smiling people standing around me here at the command post, and a lot of rescuers and folks who are very pleased to hear this news," National Park Service spokeswoman Tina White told CBS News' Karyn Regal. "We were focusing more heavily on the 35 different segments of the area where we thought he had the highest probability of being, and maybe that's what paid off."

"Michael was discovered back on the trail near the primitive campsite area where the scout group was camping," White told a news conference.

"I've also received additional reports that he is weak, but in good condition. But, therefore, because he is weak, we are not going to have him walk off the trails. He will be transported on a vehicle off those trails and reunited with his parents," she said.

"This is such a wonderful ending to this!" said White.

Auberry vanished after lunch with his fellow Scouts and troop leaders on Saturday. His father said the adults and the other boys on the trip told him the boy had slept late but nothing appeared to have been wrong.

"We don't have any details about the terrain or the type of area that he was in," White said. "But probably the most important thing that we all heard come across the radio was "A-1," which means he is in "A-1 condition."

Now, he'll be reunited with his parents in a private location, and debriefed by authorities.

"What happened and what went wrong and why did Michael walk off — those are all questions that have been plaguing us as we've been following this search. And those are hopefully questions that will get answered whenever we meet with Michael privately," White said.

"I haven't spoken to (the parents). But I saw them. I saw lots of tears, and hugs and smiles. The parents were just elated," White said.

Dog teams and a plane with heat-sensing equipment had searched overnight the rugged area around the camp site where Auberry was last seen but had no new clues or leads, White said. But the searchers remained optimistic, and found the boy later in the day.

About 70 people aided by dogs and a helicopter had searched the area's logging roads and trails and scoured the off-road regions.

One of Auberry's favorite books a few years ago was about a boy whose plane crashes in the wilderness, and how that boy survives on his own, his father said earlier Tuesday.