A search for a missing 19-year-old Whitefield man with autism ended successfully after about seven hours Friday evening when he was found around 6:30 p.m. at a residence on Coopers Mills Road in Windsor, according to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.

The man, Benaiah J. Pagurko, suffered minor injuries but did not require hospitalization, the sheriff’s office said, without explaining how Pagurko became injured. State police returned Pagurko to his parents’ home in Whitefield.

He had left the home on foot about 11:15 a.m., and when his absence was reported, the sheriff’s office registered him as a missing person with the National Crime Information Center.

“Benaiah has a history of traveling long distances during past incidents of this nature and could be anywhere in Kennebec or Lincoln Counties,” police said in a news release before Pagurko was found.

The Maine State Police and the Maine Warden Service assisted with the investigation.


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