Two teenage boys on bicycles helping with the search for a missing 5-year-old boy and his 8-year-old sister found the pair safe around 11 p.m.walking several streets from their home about four hours after they went missing.
"We're very fortunate they were found safe," said Mount Holly Police Capt. Jim Benfield.
More than a dozen law enforcement officers, and Highway Patrol bloodhounds, spent several hours in the Catawba Heights area of Mount Holly searching for the children, 5-year-old Alex Mitchem and 8-year-old Lauren Mitchem.
"They were walking and they were safe," said Benfield at 11:05 p.m. "We haven't had time to interview them yet."
The two teenagers, Jonathan Rector and Brandon Humphries, were just helping with the search on their bicycles, Benfield said. Other officers were talking with them, and Benfield said he did not have their names.
The children were found on Rose Street, which is several blocks away from the children's home.
The children were reportedly outside playing at their house at 131 Tomberlin Road, around 7 p.m. Saturday when their mother went inside to change the diaper of a third child, said Benfield.
When the mother went back outside the children were gone and she reported them missing around 7:30 p.m.
About 15 officers - from Mount Holly, Gaston County Police and Sheriff's Office, the N.C. Highway Patrol and Mount Holly Fire Department - were still searching for the children after 10:30 p.m.
"Right now it's a hunt and seek operation to try and locate these two little kids before something happens," Benfield said just minutes before they were found.
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