CLAY COUNTY – As a father of five, Investigations Lt. Stephen Coyne takes every missing person call personally. Every hour that passes and every lead that fails is another gut punch.

There is no greater sense of relief than when a loved one, especially someone with emotional limitations, is found safe. For the investigations unit, relief is fleeting because another call could arrive in minutes.

On Wednesday, July 16, the Clay County Sheriff's Office responded to three missing person calls, with the first two classified as endangered missing persons.

The first was for 76-year-old Carol Ladson, who Sheriff Michelle Cook said may have some mental health challenges and could be trying to hide in the vicinity of Knight Boxx and Old Jennings roads.

The second was for a 10-year-old boy with autism who went missing along Sandridge Road near Lake Asbury Junior High.

One of the first steps to finding a missing person is creating a game plan at the scene.

PHOTO COURTESY CCSO

“You think about the dangers out there and the longer they’re exposed to things, especially when they're vulnerable by their limitations or by their age and things like that, it just makes it that much worse,” Coyne said. “You really feel under pressure to get a good result as quickly as you can.”

Deputies eventually found Ladson sitting in a neighbor’s backyard. It appeared she became overwhelmed by the heat and had wandered as far as she could before she found refuge.

“She had gone down the road and got through an insecure gate into a backyard,” Coyne said. “She was essentially getting away from the heat, sitting down and just trying to stay cool. Still, she had no idea where she was.”

A K-9 tracked the boy to a neighbor’s house, where deputies found him upstairs playing computer games with a friend.

Hours later, they got a third call, but that case was resolved quickly, Coyne said.

Missing person calls are so critical, K-9 units from the St. Johns and Jacksonville sheriff’s offices joined the searches, Cook said.

The first two missing person calls on July 16 required the Clay County Sheriff's Office to set up command posts.

PHOTO COURTESY CCSO

Coyne said it’s essential for everyone to check their yards, sheds and areas around their houses. However, Coyne noted that coming to the scene can create additional scents that can lead K-9s down false trails.

“We do social media push outs or the SaferWatch alerts to ask people to check around their house or the dangers in their area to make sure they're not caught up behind a fence or in the shed or something like that, where they can't get out and then maybe be overcome by the heat,” Coyne said.

“But if they come to the area where we're searching, either the dogs trying to get on their track can't tell who it's following, or we'll see footprints or disturbance for somebody's pass through and be on the wrong trail looking for the wrong person.”

What concerns Coyne most is not reacting quickly enough to a missing person.

“A lot of times when we go out and we find the person quickly, the family feels like they wasted our time,” Coyne said. “A lot of times with young children that are missing, we find them in places that seem silly at the end, like they're asleep in a space and nobody looked in or a place that’s not dangerous.

“I would much rather – and I know the people I work with the same way – I’d much rather come to your house 10 times and find your child than you not call us for a couple of hours cause you're embarrassed or you think we're going to feel like you've wasted our time. We can't gain back that time once we've lost it. If we come out and waste our time, it's a good practice. We don’t want you to be scared to waste our time.”

With five children at home, Coyne takes each call personally and wants every advantage available when it comes to finding a missing person.