Boy Scout missing in rugged country in park

? Search teams combed mountain terrain Sunday for a 12-year-old Boy Scout who disappeared during an outing.

About 10 Scouts and the adult leaders of Troop 230, from Greensboro, noticed that Michael Auberry was missing lunch Saturday in Doughton Park, which is part of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The troop had gone on a hike earlier Saturday, and the boy stayed behind with an adult because he wanted to sleep in, said David Bauer, a parkway ranger.

After the troop returned and ate lunch with Michael and the adult, the troop noticed the boy was missing from camp. Searchers found part of his mess kit less than a mile away overnight Saturday, Bauer said.

“At this point we’re looking at every possibility,” Bauer said. “The most probable thing is that he walked away, went out in the woods and went to investigate.”

Michael’s parents joined the search. “We’re really hopeful,” his father, Kent Auberry, told the Winston-Salem Journal.

Auberry cried while describing a spot searchers had found where it appeared someone had sat on a rock and drawn in the dirt with a stick.

He said his son has been a Scout for about a year and has a first-class rank.

Searchers were moving off the trail and into rugged terrain Sunday afternoon and were narrowing their search at night because of the risks involved, Bauer said. The broader search was to resume at daybreak today.