UPDATE – Tyler Pillsbury has been found safe in Williston, Vermont, about eight miles from where he was last seen yesterday afternoon. Tyler was spotted in front of a restaurant at about 9:30 this morning, and is being interviewed by State police now. His parents are on their way to meet him. It is unclear at this time whether Tyler left of his own free will or where he spent the night, but he appears to be safe and relatively unharmed.
Jericho, VT – Tyler Pillsbury was last seen out riding his bike yesterday after school. It was about 4:30 p.m. and the thirteen-year-old was riding his black mountain bike along Browns Trace Road and Governor Peck Road in Jericho. He hasn’t been seen since, and Vermont State Police say the boy’s disappearance is suspicious.Â
Tyler was wearing an orange sweatshirt with a hood, blue jeans, white sneakers, and either a dark knit hat or a blue bike helmet. He is about 5’5″ and weighs 90 pounds. He has short brown hair and hazel eyes.
Tyler has also been identified in at least one news report as Tyler Washburn. Could be a typo, but it could also be that this is a kid who uses more than one last name. Lots of kids in divorced or blended families use different last names depending on who they’re visiting or living with – that could easily be the case here.
It’s easy to look at a 13 year old kid and say, well, he just got mad about something and ran away. Or he hit the bong or got drunk with friends or made out with a girl and was afraid to go home. And honestly, I probably wouldn’t normally write up this kind of case – too often, the kid is home in an hour. But this case is eerily similar to the abduction of Shawn Hornbeck. Shawn was abducted from his home in Richwoods, Missouri in 2002 and recovered in 2007. He was eleven, out riding his bike near his rural home. He vanished without a trace on an early October afternoon. Sound familiar?
Shawn’s abductor, Michael Devlin, will never see freedom again – he’s serving multiple life sentences. And maybe I’m being alarmist. Maybe Tyler Pillsbury/Washburn just skipped out for awhile. I hope I’m wrong. I hope he makes it home today so I can post that the little snothead wasted a half hour of my time writing him up. I hope he went out and did something kid-stupid and didn’t want to go home. I hope he shows up in his first-hour class like nothing ever happened. I hope.
Anyone with information about Tyler or his whereabouts is asked to contact Vermont State Police at 878-7111.
Tags: Missing Person, Vermont
PREVIOUS ARTICLE
Who Murdered Brittany Tate?
NEXT ARTICLE
Deacsa Brown Fights Dirty