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Missing 4-Year-Old Found Safe After Wandering Away From Home

CHIPPEWA (KDKA) -- Chippewa Police, firefighters, other first responders and volunteers fanned out in a Chippewa neighborhood late Sunday afternoon, after the parents of 4-year-old Michael Callahan called 911 to report their son was missing.

There was concern because it was getting dark in the neighborhood where Callahan went missing. The area is also heavily wooded, and there's a creek nearby.

Neighbors Spiro and Mary Pappan were out of town when they heard about the missing boy. So, they decided to drive back home, and help in the search.

Lucky they did.

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"My wife had a lump in her throat, and she said we got to turn around and try to help find this kid; so we came home, and went into the house, and into the bedroom, I went into the closet, and he was right there, staring at us, my wife started screaming," Spiro said.

"We had a real community response, a whole neighborhood response, thank God he was found," Detective Captain Tim Staub of the Beaver County Detective Bureau said.

The Pappans think Callahan likely followed their dog into the house, and then the boy ended up in their bedroom.

"I told the boy, if he ever wants to come back to see the dog, he has to ask his mother's permission, and she has to come with him," Mary Pappan said. "Our plan wasn't to come straight home, so he would have wound up in there for hours, we probably wouldn't have arrived home until about 10:30 [Sunday night]."

 

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