Austin Bohanan's mother speaks out on Facebook, canines join search for Blount County teen missing six days in the Great Smoky Mountains

Cynthia Clark/Smoky Mountain Post

Austin Bohanan's mother said on social media that if she could change things, she would have reported her son missing right away instead of waiting two days. Bohanan has been missing six days in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Christa Dyer, Bohanan's birth mother, has reached out on social media asking for prayers from the public. When asked yesterday for details about her son's disappearance, she commented, "He left with my husband Friday to go hiking on Chehowee [sic] Lake and they got separated. He's always right behind and then he wasn't. We have been all over that place all weekend looking for him ..."

Austin Bohanan, pictured in a photo
shared on Facebook by a family member.

18-year-old Austin Bohanan,
missing since Friday in the Smokies.

She added in later comments, "And he did not leave him. He got lost. My husband lost his glasses and can't see an inch in front of his face and he thought he was behind him ..."

Quoting from her Facebook page, Dyer went on to comment, "We were looking for him all weekend long. My husband knows that mountains [sic] very very well and I waited for him to come out the last time and I contacted the authorities for some more help because we knew we needed it at that point."

When pressed about why they waited two days to contact authorities, Dyer responded, "Because we thought he would come out. Me and my husband were in there the whole weekend looking for him and my husband reassured me that he would come out somewhere cuz [sic] Austin is a smart boy so he reassured me he would come out if I could do that if I could change things I sure as hell would I would have them in their [sic] right away."

Two search and rescue dog teams, provided by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, joined 30 trained emergency responders in the search for the missing Blount County teenager, who was reportedly last seen hiking off-trail with his stepfather in the remote southwest corner of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Friday evening, Aug. 11. Family members reported him missing to the park’s Emergency Communication Center Sunday evening at about 8 p.m.

Family members and friends are circulating
these missing person posters for Austin Bohanan.

The National Park Service said in a news release today that the ground search teams were navigating dense vegetation and difficult terrain in the remote southwest corner of the park near Chilhowee Lake. Search teams are primarily conducting linear searches of drainages and ridges looking for any evidence of human travel in the rugged wilderness area, the release said.

Bohanan's stepmother, Brooke Bohanan, said last night, "There are some things that the park can not tell us due to the investigation. So we do not have a whole lot of details." She also noted that the "emotional pain that is so high right now" has kept them from talking to Austin's birth mother and stepfather about their missing son.

Austin's friends and family members are circulating missing person posters in hopes of helping locate him.

Bohanan is a white male between 5’2”-5’5” feet tall, weighs between 120-150 pounds and has brown hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing blue jeans, unknown color t-shirt, and blue Nike baseball cap.

If anyone has seen Bohanan since Friday evening please call the park at (865) 436-1230.

Search and Rescue team members navigate dense vegetation in the
search for Austin Bohanan, missing since Friday, Aug. 11. (National Park Service)