Volunteer reveals incredible moment he found Will Callaghan in bushland

The volunteer who found missing teenager Will Callaghan in the dense bushland at Mount Disappointment in Victoria has spoken out about the incredible moment he discovered the boy, two days after he first went missing in the region.

The 14-year-old was found alive and conscious on Thursday afternoon, having spend two nights in the wilderness, with temperatures plummeting below zero. Victoria Police confirmed the news in a statement published on Twitter shortly after 1pm which read: “Amazing news!! Missing boy Will Callaghan has been located by a volunteer at Mount Disappointment. After two days missing in bushland, Will is set to be reunited with his family shortly. We would like to thank the community for their outpour of support.”

Now Ben Gibbs, the volunteer who found Will, has opened up about the long search and the moment he realised he had found the teenager in the bushland. Speaking to media on Thursday afternoon, Ben described Will as “really angelic” and said he was just “peacefully standing there” when he noticed him about 20 minutes from the summit of the mountain during a search.

“I’m the one who stumbled across him but everybody found him. All of the volunteers and all of the Search and Rescue…everybody’s effort” – Ben Gibbs, the volunteer who found William Callaghan at Mount Disappointment. https://t.co/f2y1co9K8q #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/pAzeBUlXsD

— 7NEWS Australia (@7NewsAustralia) June 10, 2020

“I came up from the bottom of the mountain. There’s quite a bit of single track that goes through there that I know quite well, so I followed that up and then went off track once I got near the top,” he said. “I saw where the guys had tagged where they’d done some searching previously so I dropped in a bit deeper than that.

“It wasn’t too far down [from the summit]. From the track we were about 20 minutes in. I was just wandering through the bush, it was quite thick so I was breaking my way through it and then he was just like, about 15 metres from me, just standing there, just really angelic, just standing, looking.”

Will’s mother Penny had previously shared that her son’s favourite television show is Thomas the Tank Engine, so when Ben came across the teenager he started to talk about Diesel – one of the characters on the program – to “relax him a bit”. He also gave him some chocolate, a jacket and some socks – as the autistic teen had removed his shoes. Incredibly, Ben said Will appeared in “reasonable health” and “wasn’t shivering too bad”. However, he was covering his ears from the helicopters that were searching above.

But, despite being the one to find Will, Ben said he doesn’t want to take all the credit, as an extensive team of volunteers and the search and rescue team had worked tirelessly over the last couple of days to locate him.

"THANK YOU EVERYONE, YOU'RE ALL AMAZING!"

The mother of William Callaghan, the autistic boy who spent three days lost in Victorian bushland, has voiced her gratitude to the hundreds of volunteer searchers.

See Will's incredible story of survival tonight at 6.00pm on #9News pic.twitter.com/MuWLkwu0hF

— 9News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) June 10, 2020

“I am the one who stumbled across him, but everybody found him, all the volunteers and all of the search and rescue,” he told reporters. “It was everybody’s effort.”

Meanwhile Will’s mother Penny was beyond excited to see her son once again after what has been a challenging few days. Speaking to media shortly after being reunited with her son, the mum thanked everyone for their help and said she just wants to be with her boy now.

“Thank you everyone, I’m so grateful,” she said. “You’re all amazing. What an amazing community. What more can I say, I want to be with my boy. I didn’t believe it [when he was found]. I can’t imagine what he’s been feeling and going through. I’m just so grateful and so relieved. He’s just a very special person … we’re just so privileged to have him in our lives.”