SEBEC – A search for an autistic 9-year-old boy reported missing Monday by his parents in Sebec ended about an hour later when the boy was found swimming in Sebec Lake.

The parents, who have a camp on the lake, notified the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department at about noon that they could not find their son who had been missing for about an hour.

Deputies from the sheriff’s department and game wardens went to the location and did a search of the initial area without finding the boy, according to Lt. Robert Young of the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department. As a land search was under way, Warden Pilot Charlie Later searched from the air.

Young said Later spotted the boy swimming in Sebec Lake and he apparently was ducking so he would avoid being seen. He had apparently swum across a small cove. Investigators Sgt. Mike Gould and Dave Wilson caught the boy after he left the water and had run into the woods, he said.

“He loves to swim, I think he just decided to go for a swim,” Young said. His parents were worried that he had swum across the lake to the other side, he said.