Why missing children investigations are complicated 0:47
(CNN) --
Authorities in Summit County, Utah, had been hearing about a young man wandering the area with a shopping cart for several weeks.
When they found him last Saturday, they discovered that he had been reported missing for almost three years in Northern California, more than 1,000 kilometers away.
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Sheriff's deputies responded to a gas station in the Park City metro area on the morning of April 9 after a "concerned community member" reported seeing the man sleeping there, the Park City sheriff's office said. Summit County in a Facebook post.
The area is about a 40-minute drive from Salt Lake City.
Deputies offered the man a seat inside one of their vehicles to warm up and began investigating who he was, the sheriff's office said.
"Through past interactions and Saturday's interaction, it became clear to deputies that the man communicated differently," the sheriff's office said, also including an autism awareness hashtag on his Facebook post. .
A dispatcher began searching the pages of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's website, and more than a dozen pages found a missing Connerjack Oswalt poster.
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This photo of Connerjack Oswalt was seen on his missing poster, which stated that he went missing in September 2019 in Clearlake, California.
Oswalt, now 19, had been reported missing in September 2019 in Clearlake, California, northwest of Sacramento and about an 11.5-hour drive from Summit County.
Authorities believed it was the same person they had found shaking at the gas station.
"Deputies began making phone calls and were able to contact Connerjack's mother," Lt. Andrew Wright of the Summit County Sheriff's Office told CNN in an email.
His mother told authorities that Oswalt had a distinctive birthmark on his neck.
Agents found the mark in Oswalt, Wright said.
Although authorities had previously interacted with Oswalt before that day, he had not shared who he was and police "had no reason to demand his information because he was not breaking the law," Wright said.
Oswalt's stepfather and grandfather went to Park City, Utah, to identify him in person and meet, Wright told CNN.
Body camera footage provided by the sheriff's office shows the day deputies encountered Oswalt at the gas station.
In one of two body camera videos sent to CNN from the sheriff's office, Oswalt's stepfather is seen exclaiming in disbelief when police show him a mugshot of Oswalt to confirm it was the same person.
Wright told CNN that Oswalt had a prior warrant for his arrest.
"Is that him?" Oswalt's mother can be heard from the phone, which was on speakerphone.
"A little older, but yeah," replies Oswalt's stepfather.
"My sweetie is alive," the mother is heard saying, sobbing into the phone.
"Can you go get it please?"
Oswalt's mother and stepfather have moved to Idaho Falls, Idaho, since he disappeared, authorities said.
Oswalt was still receiving care and resources and has not yet gone to Idaho, Wright said.
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