Jake Wilson of La Porte City, in northeast Iowa, was last seen at 9 p.m. last Saturday going for a walk to Wolf Creek in town, police said.
When he didn’t return home, law enforcement started searching for him before 10 p.m., La Porte City Police Chief Chris Brecher said.
After checking the homes of his friends and grandparents, Brecher said he had a gut feeling that “something just didn’t seem right.”
Now, the teen, who has the mental acuity of an 8- or 9-year-old child, has been missing for several days and his condition is unknown.
Jake, who stands 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs 135 pounds, was last seen wearing a brown zip-up hooded sweatshirt, dark pants and cowboy boots
The family of missing teen Jake Wilson have issued the following statement:
Good Evening, We would like to first of all thank every volunteer and all law enforcement personnel who have spent countless hours to help find Jake and return him to our family. This is a very difficult and trying situation for his family and friends. No parent should have to feel the agony that the entire family has been experiencing. We ask that our media partners, who have been extremely supportive and helpful during this situation, help keep the narrative of this situation where it needs to be and that is to help find Jake and bring him home to us.
We are committed to continue to work with everyone involved in this situation to help see this situation through to an end where Jake will be home with us.
We urge our media partners to continue to help us by providing coverage of this situation to have people continue to seek Jake and call us with any information that can help. We urge anyone who wants to continue to help us to use social media as a means to push information that can help support the family and friends of Jake and spread the word to help find him.
We ask that everyone please respect our family during this very difficult time. The next few days will be incredibly important for us and again thank everyone supporting these efforts to bring Jake home.
Thank you.
The family of Jake Wilson