Imagine having to deal with a diagnosis of stage 4 breast cancer. And then, on top of that, having your child gomissing.
That’s what Kate Byrum-Kocurek was facing when her 17-year-old with learning disabilities disappeared.
Byrum-Kocurek said the last time she saw her son Micah was after she was giving him a talk about getting along with his siblings.
Byrum-Kocurek said her son then went for a walk around their home at Avalon Square Apartments in Houston, TX around 10 p.m. on Saturday night and didn’t come home.
Byrum-Kocurek and her husband Brandon started searching for their son about 15 minutes after he left.
“I looked both ways and across the street. I thought we would walk this way because this is the way we walk his little sister to school. He left his phone, he left his shoes, he left in exactly what he was wearing. Black basketball shorts with red accents and a navy t-shirt,” the mother of five said.
Two and a half days later they were still searching. The family and their remaining four children passed out flyers and reviewed nearby surveillance video.
They also checked online gaming and chatrooms to see if anyone knew where their son was.
The Houston Police, Texas Center for the Missing, and Texas EquuSearch were all alerted about the teen’s disappearance.
Byrum-Kocurek was so distraught that she was missing her cancer treatment appointments while she searched for her son.
She was concerned that her son might be lost since he is dyslexic and dysgraphic.
“I want my boy home. I don’t care about missing appointments; I don’t care about anything. I just want my boy home,” Byrum-Kocurek said.
Thankfully, Micah was found by a homeless couple who took care of him during the freezing temperatures.
Someone on their neighborhood app texted a photo to Byrum-Kocurek, saying they didn’t think it was their son.
But sure enough, it was. The family rushed over to where their son was reportedly seen.
They found him just five miles away in southeast Houston.
The couple fed and cared for the teen.
Since they didn’t have electricity or social media, they didn’t know he was missing and that people were looking for him.
In addition to feeding him every day, they washed his clothes and found some warmer clothes for him to wear.
Micha was found in very good condition.
Byrum-Kocurek referred to the couple who found him as “his angels” and her angels as well.
Micah told the press that he was happy to be home and grateful to have been found.
“I hope that we can find more people because I know there’s a lot of other kids that went missing that aren’t as lucky as I am to get found,” he said.
Micha’s family is relieved that he is home and mom plans to continue her cancer treatments now that her family has been reunited.
She hopes her son’s story will serve as a reminder to parents to make sure their children memorize their phone numbers and home addresses.
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