Missing Teen Found In Crawl Space Of His Home

GERMANTOWN, Md. (WUSA) -- The 14 year old teen Montgomery County Police had been looking for has been found bound and semi-conscious in the crawl space of his own home in the 11300 block of Rambling Road in Germantown.

While interviewing neighbors, members of the media were summoned into the house by family members who came outside yelling, "Come in. Come in."

Upon entering the house, the news media found that 14-year-old Lionel Youkam had been discovered in the crawl space of the 2-story house. The boy was pulled from the crawl space to a narrow closet area. At that point, 9NEWS NOW Reporter Dave Statter, a former firefighter and EMT, helped tend to the boy who was semi-conscious and had something around his neck.

Montgomery Co. Police and Fire Rescue arrived a short time later. The teen was taken from the house by ambulance.

Family members tell 9NEWS NOW that Lionel remains in the hospital, but is expected to be okay. They say they have no idea how he ended up in the crawl space. A close friend of the family said that Lionel had no problems with his parents or friends.

As for the investigation, police say until they speak with Lionel, they will not be able to answer how he ended up being found in a space where police, accompanied by family members, had searched at least five times.

Investigators say there is no evidence of foul play but they are looking at all possibilities.

Youkam called his mother from home Wednesday afternoon. When the mother returned, Lionel was missing.

Montgomery Co. Police say the house had been searched Wednesday when the boy was reported missing. While looking for him, police and family searched the crawl space multiple times.