8-year-old wanders 4 miles from home

NIAGARA, N.Y. (WIVB) - First responders and volunteers spent their Thanksgiving morning looking for a missing 8-year-old boy in the Town of Niagara.

Authorities say the boy, who is mentally disabled, wandered off from his home in the Cayuga Village around 9:30 a.m. and about three hours later was found four miles away. The boy had been playing on the front porch before he disappeared. Police say the child thought he would be able to walk to a relative's home.

Niagara County Sheriff's Capt. Greg Schuey said, "We believe he was walking towards his aunt's house, or where he thought his aunt lived, which is nowhere close to where he was. He was uninjured, happy to be on his way back to his parents. And they're going to have a nice Thanksgiving now."

Niagara County Sheriff's deputies, Town of Niagara Police, Niagara Falls Police, Border Patrol, State Police, volunteer firefighters and members of the community all assisted in the search.

Town of Niagara Police Chief H. James Suitor said, "I appreciate all the public safety agencies whose coordinated assistance was instrumental to finding the juvenile and reuniting him with his family. I would also like to thank the many local residents who stopped celebrating their holiday and assisted in the search."