Missing Poway teen found safe in Ventura County

Updated at 11:50 a.m. Monday

Missing Poway teenager Attius VanArsdale has been found safe in Ventura County and was on his way home Sunday, according to a Facebook post from his mother. Sammee VanArsdale released the following statement on the Help Find Atticus VanArsdale Facebook site: “Atticus has been found and is on his way home. Please give us time to work through this time with our family, and our precious son. Thank you a thousand times over for your help and support.”

On Friday, the Help Find Atticus VanArsdale Facebook site posted that Atticus VanArsdale had been spotted at a shopping mall in Ventura County, and that evening, someone commented that they had spoken to VanArsdale on a beach in the Piermont area of Ventura County. The post has since been removed from the Facebook site.

Atticus VanArsdale, the Poway 18-year-old who was last seen on June 11, might be using the Sprinter rail line to travel.

Volunteers have been handing out flyers at locations along the line, which runs from Oceanside to Escondido, according to the official Facebook site Help Find Atticus VanArsdale. A message sent to the page with a request for an interview with the family or a search representative went unanswered.

Anne Gavin of So-Cal Advocates of the Missing, posted on the Facebook page that her organization had 60 volunteers handing out 1,000 flyers along the Sprinter route and in the Poway area last Saturday.

VanArsdale, who was a senior at Poway High School and was due to graduate with the rest of his classmates at the June 12 ceremony, was last seen at about 9 p.m. Wednesday, June 11. He was reported missing by his family at about 9 a.m. the following day after failing to show up for graduation practice.

VanArsdale is considered a voluntary missing person according to Det. Todd Richards of the Poway substation of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

VanArsdale is a white male, 6-foot 1-inch tall, 170 pounds, with long blonde/brown hair he usually wears in a ponytail and brown eyes. He might be wearing new Dr. Seuss-themed Converse sneakers or older, gray Converse sneakers, jeans, a T-shirt, blue-mirrored and Ray-Ban aviator-style sunglasses. He is thought to be carrying a new “My Little Pony” backpack.

Anyone with information on VanArsdale’s whereabouts should call the sheriff’s department at 858-565-5200.

The Help Find Atticus VanArsdale Facebook page can be found at

www.facebook.com/helpfindatticusvanarsdale

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