Teenager William found after six days

After six days of searching, missing teenage boy William has been found safe and well.

Air Wing were conducting an aerial search of the Cowwarr area when they spotted a tacklebox in bushland around 2km east from Stoney Creek.

Zooming in on the tacklebox, they found William laying down close by in a creek.

Flight officers winched down and retrieved Will before bringing him back to the command post to reunite with his mum.

Amazingly, William is in good spirits and for the most part, in good health.

He was taken to hospital for monitoring.

The 17-year-old was with a friend when he was last seen in the vicinity of Stoney Creek Road, between Cowwarr and Walhalla, near T2 Track on Friday 6 November about 4pm.

He was dropped off by his mother for the purposes of camping for the weekend when he walked a short distance to the dropoff location to retrieve further camping equipment.

When he failed to return shortly after, his friend searched the area but found no trace of Will.

An extensive search of the area was conducted by Victoria Police uniform officers, specialist units and other agencies over the past six days.

Victoria Police would like to extend its thanks to the community, volunteers, SES, Ambulance Victoria, Bush Search and Rescue, Australian Search and Rescue K9, Search and Rescue Dogs K9 and Cowwarr Football Netball Club, for assisting with the search for Will.

We’d also like to thank our own members from uniform and specialist units who assisted.

Want to be part of work like this? Put yourself forward and visit police.vic.gov.au/police-officer-careers(opens in a new window) for more information.

Media Unit

153316