E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Pierce Crowley, 15, of Rye, N.Y. was found just after midnight Wednesday night.
A teenager who vanished last Friday from Westchester County, N.Y., has been found safe in Manhattan, officials said Thursday.
Police said officers spotted Pierce Crowley, 15, just after midnight Wednesday night with a group of other teenagers in Washington Heights, in the northern part of New York City. They questioned Crowley, and once they determined it was the teen, officers returned him to his family's house in Rye.
"He was unharmed, appeared to be in good health and good spirits," White Plains Police Lt. Eric Fischer told msnbc.com.
Police, family members, and hundreds of volunteers had been searching for Crowley, plastering fliers around Manhattan, Westchester and the Bronx. On the day he vanished, he had been at White Plains' New York-Presbyterian Hospital in what his parents described in an email to friends as "a fragile state."
He hadn't been feeling well when he disappeared, his parents had said, but didn't elaborate. The medical center where he was last seen is one of the top psychiatric hospitals in the nation.
According to police, a friend of Crowley's had come forward to say the two left the hospital and went to The Cheesecake Factory restaurant together, Newsday reported.
They then took a cab to the White Plains Metro-North train station, the report said. Crowley's friend took a train to New York City while Crowley stayed behind in the cab.
Crowley had $40 in his pocket, no credit card and no cell phone, police told Newsday.
Previous report: Teen missing; parents say he was in a 'fragile state'
"We were treating it as a missing persons case. At no time did we ever have any information that foul play was suspected," Fischer told msnbc.com.
On Thursday morning, a Facebook page called "Find Pierce Crowley," which had garnered nearly 7,000 fans, was updated with a single sentence: "Pierce is safe back home, thank you for all your help!"
Crowley's parents did not return a phone call from msnbc.com, but his mother, Gretchen, told Newsday, "We're just so incredibly relieved, I can't even put it into words. He's here and he's safe and obviously everybody is thrilled here."
He was happy to back with his family, a White Plains public safety commissioner said.
"He looks like he just walked out and decided to have an adventure," David Chong told Newsday. "It's like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack."
Tips about Crowley's location, including one Wednesday night about him being in the Washington Heights area, had poured in throughout the investigation, the White Plains police said.
Crowley is a student at Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle, where he plays hockey and lacrosse and runs cross-country, Newsday said.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- New tests shed no light on 'burning rocks' mystery
- Teen in Mexico due to ‘Leap Day’ error can return home
- EPA planes spying on ranchers? Lawmakers want answers
- Video: IRS mistakenly sends waitress $400K refund
- Video purportedly shows NYC student making out with his teacher
- Man interviews for job, ends up getting detained for 1975 murder
Leave a Comment:
Very glad this sick young man has been found alive and well. This entire situation is the Parents fault as he as per parents he was in a fragile condition 'at a psych hospital visit without a parent. Hopefully these parents will become more responsible and take proper care of their son. Take him to his Doctor appointments like a normal parent would do. I hope the parents are billed for all the hours the police spent looking for this kid.
You are making a lot of assumptions when you don't know the facts. Don't jump to conclusions. They may be wonderful parents who didn't know he was going to a hospital....
Just another case of a kid being spoiled by his parents, resulting in a narcissistic, self-absorbed teen. Fragile state? A few months this summer doing manual labor for his neighbors for free would do wonders for his fragile state.
You do not know the situation, I hate people who just assume the worst about everything. If they did not care about their child they would have not known anything was wrong with him until he was 24 and perched on a building with a gun snipping random people.
What's to say he's really sick. His parents called it a "fragile state." His parents said he wasn't feeling well. So where did they take this kid who wasn't "feeling well"? To a psychiatric hospital. Who knows what's really wrong with him. For all we know, maybe he came out, and his parents dumped him in the psych ward to "straighten" him out. All we're getting is the parents' words that he isn't well and in a fragile state.
"He was unharmed, appeared to be in good health and good spirits."
"He looks like he just walked out and decided to have an adventure."
And he was selfishly unaware that by going joyriding (or whatever the hell he was doing) for five days with his friends without trying to contact his family, he may cause a whole lot of people worry and may cause the authorities to mobilize to try and find him. His father should beat his priviledged backside and lock him in his room for a month with no internet, video games or TV. Of course, given that these are probably "modern" parents, they'll probably just blow this off as Pierce just trying to "find" himself.
And he was found in the Washington Heights area, which is an area known for high narcotics activity. Perhaps they should check his blood to see if his "good spirits" were chemically induced.
Marilyn, I hope the MD after your name is for the state of Maryland; that you are not a doctor.
What I see here is a boy that probably has some form of Aspberger's (?spelling). They are usually highly intelligent and many go to school away from home. Some are prone to do things on the spur of the moment without thinking about the consequences of their actions. He might have been at the hospital to see his therapist because of anxiety of finals coming up.
What I am trying to say is don't assume anything without having all of the information, most of which is missing from the article.
Thanks for saying what I wanted to say but better
It wasn't a "doctor's appointment" exactly; one radio report said that it was a group therapy session with a group that he was a longstanding member of. Presumably he had "issues" or he wouldn't have been going, but apart from that he wasn't in the midst of a particular crisis this time as far as anybody knew. There was no reason for anyone to think he would do anything differently than he had who knows how many times before when going back home after these meetings. I'd be willing to bet it didn't even enter into it; he was just being an obnoxious teenager. There is nothing to suggest he didn't know exactly what he was doing. Probably got a charge out of all the drama.
Wow, Marilyn, you don't even know these people or the circumstances involved!
So glad he is safe and is now home. Whatever the troubles are, he will need to learn that running away doesn't solve anything. Glad to hear he was happy to be home and all are safe and together!
It just may be that he is a questioning teen, and the parents don't like what he is questioning.
if the money was a gift did you pay taxes on it. if not off to jail like al capone
Probably brought in for questioning after purchasing a 32-oz. Big Gulp.
He was in a fragile state after he learned due to the economy they would not be vacationing in the Hamptons this year.
Way to go Marilyn. Judging the parents when you don't know all the facts. Was it at nite? Does the hospital allow the parents to SPEND the nite! Do you have or have you ever had a teenager. Were you sewed to their hip the entire time they grew up?!
You are a classic case of "I have to be better than someone else" so I'll just slam slam slam! I pity you!
Marilyn - The article stated he was at the Hospital, not there just for a 'visit'. Could it be he was actually an In-patient in which case he should have been in his hospital bed/room? He had a visitor and they left to eat....
The question should be....how did he just walk out of this hospital? Do they let their patients wander and just leave any time they want?
You make accusations about people you know nothing about nor do you know the situation.
That's what it sounded like, he just got up and left with his friend and didn't think about anything else. I guess the hospital don't have folks watching and they probable just walked out the front door, no one was the wiser.
At a lot of psychiatric hospitals after being there awhile and depending on how you are doing or what level you are at they do allow the patients to sign a form saying they are going outside for visitors. They mark down when they left (I believe they have 15 or 20 minutes) and then they must sign back in. If they dont then people go looking for them. The doctor has to believe that they are stable enough with their meds and feel assured they wont run off. At least this is how it is in Canada - dont know about the US. They also really limit visitors and yes even parents because they can sometimes be the source of why they are in there. There are certain visiting hours and that is that so it isnt unusual that his parents werent there.
Glad to hear he was found and returned home. The rest is nobody's business. Go back to living your own lives.
So glad to hear GOOD news! Cannon is right, the rest is none of our business, he's home he's safe and I am sure they varifying that he is not abused.
I am glad he was found safe and is home now, however, it seems to be just another case of "Spoiled little rich kid" out on the town, with out the approval of his parents, obviously. The tuition for the school he attends is over 15,000 dollars for 1 year. That is what some people make in a year. I wish I could feel sorry for him because "he hadn't been feeling well" but it is hard when everyday is a struggle for most and this kid was born with the proverbial "silver spoon" in his mouth. He needs to man up and realize that just because he may not be getting a beemer for his birthday there are kids out there still riding bikes at 18 because their parents can't even afford to buy them a crappy car.
normal daycares cost 865 dollars, thats 10,000 dollars a year. Iona has scholarships... I work two or three jobs to ensure my son had a good education. Not sure you could ever call my son spoiled or rich.
Sounds like he wanted some fun (and in this case not due to mental illness) BUT it caused a lot of problems and worry for the police, volunteers, and parents. I hope that the parents not just welcomed him home with open arms, but made him understand how he put out so many people. Maybe some volunteering time within the community.
Well as a child of the 60's all i can say is fragile mental state or not..which by the way is an extremely generic explanation of his mental condition at the time....had i just walked out, hopped a bus and ended up roaming the streets of some city..found happy go lucky and smiling after having worried my entire family into premature gray hairs and forced insomnia,completely unconcerned about the impact of my actions and intentional lack of communication...they would have left vivid imprints of whatever decal the broad leather belt was stamped with at the time, from my a$$ to my knee caps! And it would have been well deserved..but Oh No... not in the warm and fuzzy let your children do as they damn well please no matter the consequence to anybody else modern era of child rearing.
A place where just punishment= abuse and complete lack of punishment = social anarchy and zero respect for any sort of authority at all! It truly is an insane concept to actually think the youth of the nation are better served free of authority and restraint of any form of punishment rather than teaching them the age old and entirely neccessary lesson in human developement... that for every action there is a reaction and there are always consequences to every descision good or bad,large or small.
These things can well be taught without any sort of physical contact at all...but even discipline by way of sanction is frowned upon anymore. All it really takes is one good long look around to see the glaring evidence that this approach is not working at all and we are creating entire generations of narcissists. But better that it seems then to dare appear as if you care enough to be the "bad man"! Man oh man what have we done? We are in some serious trouble!
Correction, these things are best solved with the last option. I've seen many problem kids who got spanked all the time and still acted like b1tches.
Well, at least he was found, safe and sound, but I shudder to think of the costs and efforts of the manpower involved in looking for this kid who went out and had a little "adventure" for a week. If I were his parent, he would not be having any more adventures for a long, long time! Time for this kid to be subjected to some serious parenting!!!
I would beat his a$$...he wouldn't sit down for a week if he put my wife and I through that...spare the rod spoil the child.
GEE. Brilliant idea, stalin.
Good to hear he's safe. But how does a 15 year old walk out of a Psychiatric Hospital?? No parents needed to sign him out? No doors that have to be buzzed? No staff or guards see him leave? Odd. And what the hell was he doing in Washington Heights? That's a ghetto area. He could've been killed. And where was he sleeping all this time? And what was his "fragile state". Crappy reporting.
you would be amazed what people let slide... It amazes me what I did as teen and we (my friends and I) were lucky yo survive... at 15 you think you are bullet proof.
As for sleeping, a park bench can seem like a adventure to a young teen. It truly amazes me... things I would have never questioned at even 18 and 19 I would never even consider at 33.
Maybe Military school would be better for this brat than Prep school?
Cool off, azzhurt ohioan!
Wow, some of you have clearly never parented a teen. And thankful due to some of your comments, you have never known the terror when your child goes missing. I will never forget getting a phone call that my oldest was missing. Turns out he wanted to go to the skate park and somehow got out of the backyard and jump the fence. all it took was 15 minutes while my mom was cooking dinner and he was gone..... Luckly he was found in hours... I however, was three hours away when I got the call.
I can not even imagine him being gone for a week. As a parent, I did not know if I wanted to choke him or hug him... and that was after only a few hours... after a week? I would have just hugged him. Don't just presume to know whats going on!
My parents were great caring parents... and they still have no idea what I got up too as a teen. perhaps you had helicopter parents?
Tracy, that's pretty ignorant of you to say some of us "clearly never parented a teen" just because we don't agree with you. If you were a wild horse as a teen, this doesn't mean all teens behave this way. And if you're going to post that "your oldest" got out the backyard and jumped the fence to go to the skate park, at least tell us how old he was at the time, because it seems to me that an adolescent or teen leaving the house to go skateboarding is pretty normal behavior. You make him sound like a dog -- "got out the back yard and jumped the fence."
I wonder if he were from Washington Heights and found somewhere up in Westchester County if the story would have made national news.
The police would have arrested the kid from Washington Heights for being a "Suspecious individual".
He just needs some meds that make him not wanna run away. Simple bipolar meds will do the trick.
Sounds like a case of Bipolar... a manic High.
Ohh yes,,drugs are always the cure for all.
Shaking my head.
You may be correct, Tracy. I was thinking that he might have Aspberger's. They can be unpredicatable and do things without thinking of the consequences.
Glad this kid is safe but I have a ton of questions.. If this kid was a patient of the psych hospital how did he just walk out? Doesn't he have to be signed out? Where was security or nurses or dr or better yet his parents? And he leaves for an entire week? Didn't HE call home? Or call the hospital? He had 40 bucks that couldn't last but a few days? There is more to this story then it just being a "Ferris Buller's "WEEK off kind of situation. Sounds pretty off..
C'mon people, just because his family may have money doesnt make them evil people you dont what they've come from. Also, does it make them bad parents to want to put their troubled child in the best school possible. We all know that if we could we would do the same for our own. Don't be haters Im not rich, but I have friends that are that work for everything they have.
D4MN STRAIGHT! You actually know what you're talking about, unlike half of the clowns on this forum.
@ Tracy Adams: I agree, it was the first thing I thought when I read it. I've had several friends and a nephew that did the same thing during a manic phase when they weren't on the correct dosage of meds.
So basically a self entitled spoiled brat wastes the tax payers money and time all because he was just too overwhelmed by life and decided to go party.
Taxpayer money this, taxpayer money that! Is money all you think about? And by the way, you don't get to micromanage every tax dollar spent just because you put in a small (in relativity to the cumulative total of taxes paid) amount of money. If that were the case, this nation would be utter chaos.
-____________________- ..... and how much money & time was wasted??? Ugh Next Story Please..
Yeah, and it sounds like he was involved in too many activities. I'd be depressed if I had to live up to my parents' expectations of being in this, that and the other. I would want to break away and do my own thing for once.