Teens missing overnight found safe in Colo. woods

Three local teenagers were found safe by a search party early Wednesday morning after spending the night in 40-degree temperatures and a drizzling rain near Allenspark, Colo.

Seventeen-year-old Cody Wilson, of Sidney, 17-year-old James Ommen, of Padroni, Colo., and 15-year-old Tyler Gentry, of Peetz, Colo., are students at Peetz High School and were attending a Future Farmers of America officer’s retreat with other students and advisor Michael Forster, an agriculture teacher at the school.

The group was staying at a cabin in the Allensaprk area of Boulder County for the three-day leadership retreat.

Julie Wilson, mother of Cody, said she received a phone call around 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday from Forster.

“The adviser called me and said they were missing,” Wilson said. “At about 6:30 p.m., they were going to go to a pond a half-mile away to fish.”

The teenagers were told to return in one hour because it was getting dark, and when they didn’t return, Forster began searching for them.

“When he couldn’t find them, he then called the parents and asked if we wanted him to call the sheriff,” Wilson explained. “We all said ‘yes.’ ”

According to a release from the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, authorities elected to begin the search around midnight rather than wait until daylight because of the weather and the ages of the lost teens and their unfamiliarity of the area.

Rescuers located the trio shortly after 5 a.m. on Wednesday and brought them back to the cabin where they were staying.

Wilson said because there were no injuries, the leadership retreat continued as scheduled.

The three teenagers told authorities when they arrived at their intended fishing destination on Tuesday evening, the fishing wasn’t good, so they hiked down to Rock Creek.

“They fished for a little while and when they started back, discovered the path back was too steep to traverse in the diminishing light of the early evening,” according to the release.

All three teens were well prepared and had experience in the outdoors.

“The boys did everything right to get rescued,” the release explains. “They made the decision to remain where they were. The teens were well prepared to spend the night in the outdoors.”

Wilson said they made a camp fire to stay warm and had jackets, water and other supplies.

“They are all hunters and fishermen,” she said. “That was a little comfort, but I was worried more about bears and mountain lions.”

The mothers of the teens remained in contact throughout the night and decided to drive to the Allensaprk – three hours from Sidney – early Wednesday morning if their sons hadn’t been found, according to Wilson.

They made it as far as Sterling, Colo., before they heard rescuers had found the teens – from smoke rising from their campfire.

“I was worried sick,” Wilson said about the initial phone call that her son was missing. “There’s no cell service out there. The only contact we had was a land line at the cabin.”

She said she was relieved her son had been found.

“I had been back and forth with all kinds of thoughts,” she added.

Peetz School Superintendent Mark Collard said he had been informed when the three didn’t return Tuesday night, and was updated regularly on the search.

While he was concerned, he said he also knew the students were familiar with the outdoors.

“They turned up,” he said. “Everyone is safe and sound.”

Besides the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, personnel from the Allenspark Fire Protection District, Rocky Mountain Rescue Group and Front Range Rescue Dogs were called to the area to assist in the search.