Missing autistic Canadian boy found

SOUTH BAR, Nova Scotia, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- A 7-year-old autistic Canadian boy missing for two days was found alive but unconscious Monday huddled in thick brush and snow, police said.

James Delorey, who disappeared from his Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, home Saturday afternoon, was discovered in the woods about a mile away about 12:15 p.m., the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported. He was in critical condition, suffering from hypothermia.

"James is in a very serious situation at this point," Cape Breton Regional Police Chief Myles Burke said.

The boy was found by Halifax Regional Search and Rescue volunteers near a brook near Kilkenny Lake. He was airlifted to a hospital in Halifax for treatment.

The boy, who doesn't speak, was wearing only jeans, a shirt and vest when he wandered out of the family back yard Saturday afternoon, apparently following the family's dog, Chance.

The dog returned home Monday morning and one team of rescuers was tracing the dog's tracks back when another team found Delorey.

Michael Murray of Halifax Regional Search and Rescue said it wasn't clear how the boy had survived in the heavy snow and cold temperatures.

"Perhaps with a dog, [he] was able to sort of huddle close to the dog and that perhaps gave him enough body heat to survive," said Murray.

"The conditions out there were very difficult to search in. We had a very young child so there was a great sense of urgency."