A Vancouver mom who launched a social media campaign to help find her 18-year-old son said he has been found safe and is back home.
On Friday, Heidi O'Connor told KGW she believed her son, Austin Timpe, was wandering the streets of Mount Vernon, Washington on his own after leaving a mental health facility where he had been committed three days before Christmas. O'Connor said she believed doctors discharged her son.
“He's very vulnerable,” O'Connor said on Friday, from her Northeast Vancouver home.
O'Connor contacted the local police department, and her posts on social media asking for help were shared thousands of times.
On Monday, O'Connor shared the good news that Austin had been found safe and was back home in Vancouver.
In one of the posts, she wrote the following: "I wanted to take a moment to breathe and give my thanks to so many of you helping us. People that we have never even met and probably will never get a chance to personally say 'Thanks'. So many have gone out of their way to help us. To help bring our boy home. My husband and I can feel the love and prayers."
My baby is home!!!
Timpe was committed to the Skagit Valley Hospital Mental Health Center on Dec. 22, 2017, because O'Connor said doctors in Vancouver told her there were no beds available locally.
On Tuesday, Jan. 2, O'Connor said a notification popped up on her iPhone, indicating her son's Apple account had logged into Wi-Fi outside the facility.
Staff at Skagit Regional Health, which operates the Skagit Valley Hospital Mental Health Center, wouldn't confirm any details about Timpe's medical history, citing HIPAA laws.