After searching for multiple days, a group of YouTubers and the Pima County Sheriff's Department were able to safely locate a missing teen in the middle of the desert.
In the midmorning of Sept. 22, the Pima
County Sheriff's Department received reports that Ryker Lee, 15, had run away and was last seen at his home in the Three Points area southwest of Tucson, according to a news release from the department.
Over the next few days, the community came together to find Lee, who is a type 1 diabetic and in need of medicine for his condition.
Support came from other states as well. YouTuber Exploring with Jim drove from Yuba City, California, to aid in the search. On Sept. 25, while traveling through Three Points, Arizona, the YouTuber was livestreaming when he received a tip from a community member who had spotted a young man in the desert with a blanket.
Viewers watching the stream began informing deputies and other people searching for Lee about where he was last seen. It took a little over an hour after the conversation for Lee to be eventually found.
Deputies were able to locate the missing teen just before 1:00 p.m., about 3 miles away from his home, according to a Facebook post from the Sheriff's Department.
"A tip from a community member led deputies to Lee's location," the post said. "Thank you to our law enforcement partners and the community for their assistance with this case."
Deputies described the runaway teenager’s living conditions
After Lee's disappearance, deputies from Pima County arrived at the home to discover the conditions that Lee and his two younger siblings were living in were "deplorable," the Sheriff's Department said.
Lee “had been confined inside a small, padlocked room within a recreational vehicle that lacked running water, restroom facilities, and air conditioning,” according to the department.
Lee's mother Danielle Lee-Sharp, 39, and his stepfather Michael Menzie, 43, allowed deputies to search the RV, which they described as Lee’s sleeping area to be about 6 by 5 feet, with two windows. It had no restroom, and Lee-Sharp confirmed to detectives that the 15-year-old boy used plastic bottles to urinate in it, court documents said.
Lee had no access to a fan, cooler or running water inside the RV, according to documents.
Deputies wrote that the home's conditions were "unsuitable" and were a "health concern" for the children, documents said.
The Arizona Department of Child Services took custody of the two younger children, the Sheriff's Department said.
Lee-Sharp and Menzie were booked on three counts of child abuse, the department said. The pair were scheduled to be back in court on Oct. 5.
The Republic's Maritza Dominguez contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Missing Arizona teen found after YouTube livestream tip in desert
