Boy who went missing for five months found alive in attic

Six-year-old Braedence Jones from Missouri failed to come home after a visitation with his mum in August 2018.

The boy was reported missing by his father, Ryan Jones, but search efforts to find the boy were fruitless.

That is, until Tuesday when US marshals found him in a home where he was being kept in an attic crawl space.

In late November the boy’s mother, Aubrey Ferguson was named as a main suspect in the case.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol issued an Endangered Person Advisory for Braedence as authorities worked to find the mother and her partner.

Aubrey and Braedence were hiding together in the crawl space when they were found by law enforcement officials.

The 30-year-old woman was arrested along with her boyfriend, Woodrow Ziegler, 41, who had nailed the entrance to the crawl space shut and put furniture over it before officers arrived.

Aubrey Ferguson has been charged with child abduction and Braedence was reunited with his father.

“It was great,” the boy's father told KMOV. “It was the call we had been waiting for. It's amazing.

"The first thing we did… [was] give him a big hug and tell him how much we love him,” Jones said.

“I’m just happy Braedence is back, that they were able to find him.”

The six-year-old's loved ones posted about his recovery on Facebook, saying that although he had been found safe and well, he has also been through a lot. 

"Braedence was put in a dangerous situation that no child should ever have to be in," the post read. "When you have a six year old that has went [sic] through hell in this time frame he is not going to heal overnight."