Speaker 1: Nine one one was the city an address to your emergency.
Speaker 2: And yes, I am calling you because I work at
a group home and with the adults. They have autism
and one of the boys is missing, she said, one
of the boys from missing.
Speaker 3: Yes, this is the Miracle Files.
Speaker 4: I'm Emily Jones and I'm Holly Worthington. We're two sisters
who love a captivating true story, but we're also seeking
more light in our lives.
Speaker 3: So we're on a mission to find and share unforgettable,
uplifting stories of God's miracles. We hope you'll join us
on this journey.
Speaker 4: Welcome back to the Miracle Files. We have a remastered
episode for you today and we are so excited to
share some cool new details and updates with you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and just a little heads up before we jump in.
This is one you're going to want to make sure
that you listen to all the way to the end.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: There are some twists that you won't see coming.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and we will have a lot to talk about afterwards,
so we'll see you on the other side.
Speaker 3: Upon first glance, with his blonde hair and scruffy face,
Jarrett Lyon looked like a typical twenty three year old man. However,
looks can be deceiving. Jarrett was far from ordinary.
Speaker 6: He was a man with.
Speaker 3: Nonverbal autism, and his life was about to take a
dark and mysterious turn. Jarrett relied on his daily routine
to navigate his world. Every day, he and other adults
with developmental disabilities would be picked up by a day
program to engage in various activities around the city, such
as going to parks, libraries, theaters, and other public places.
In the evenings, he would return to his group home,
where he lived with other intellectually disabled adults and care professionals.
Upon arriving home, he would follow a set pattern of
dropping off his belongings and retreating to his bedroom to
immerse himself in his favorite app featuring the Sesame Street
character Elmo. But one fateful day, everything changed and Jared's
routine was shattered.
Speaker 1: Nine one one was the city an address to your emergency.
Speaker 2: Yes, I am calling you because I work at a
group home and what the adults They have autism and
one of the boys is missing, he said, one of
the boys has gone missing. Yes, he goes to a
day program with a different provider and they're saying that
they dropped him off at three eighteen pm and.
Speaker 7: He never went inside.
Speaker 6: He never went inside.
Speaker 8: Is he verbal?
Speaker 2: He's non verbal.
Speaker 3: It was a scorching hot day on July twentieth, twenty
twenty three. Jared's parents, Kara and Blair Lyon, were getting
ready for a wedding reception when they received a distressing
phone call from a staff member at Jarrett's group home.
Speaker 6: Here's Jarrett's mom, Kara.
Speaker 8: She said, something weird is going on over at the house.
Jarrett's not there and his day program said they dropped
him off, and the staff at the group homer saying
he never arrived.
Speaker 3: Questions immediately flooded the lion's minds. Jarrett had never made
it home. Where could he be? Had he just wandered off?
Panic began to set in as Kara and Blair rushed
to the group home. While Jarrett looked like a full
grown man with his disabilities, it was as if a
three year old were lost somewhere in a large city, alone,
at risk, and likely afraid.
Speaker 8: By the time we got there was a police officer
at the front door taking a stack about Jared's appearance
and stat's height.
Speaker 6: Weight, eye color.
Speaker 8: You know, a general description, also his routines if he
had a phone. I don't think the police fully grasped
the amount of disability our son has. One of the
police officers said something like, well, he probably just got
a ride with his friends and went to the park
or something. Well, first of all, our son doesn't have
any friends, and secondly, he's nonverbal, and thirdly, he's not
really capable of understanding like hitching a ride with someone.
He would just maybe open a random stranger's door and
get in their car because he's so used to so
many different staff taking in places, But he doesn't understand
deliberately getting a ride to somewhere with someone and being
able to communicate he wanted to go somewhere.
Speaker 3: Jarrett had spent the day with a young woman, one
of the staff members from his day program. We'll call
this young woman Lucy to protect her privacy. When asked
by the police, Lucy reported that she had dropped Jarrett
off around three thirty pm and hadn't seen him since.
That meant Jarrett had to be somewhere close by, but
where no one at the group home had seen Jarrett enter.
It clearly something had happened to interrupt Jarrett's normal routine.
His belongings were nowhere to be seen, including his backpack
and shoes. It was as if Jarrett had just vanished
into thin air, leaving his parents and the staff at
the group home bewildered and desperate for answers. When the
Lions didn't show up at the wedding reception they'd been
planning to attend, words spread quickly that something was wrong.
Jared's older brother, Traycon, was already at the reception as
it was his brother in law's wedding, but he immediately
left to help lead the search as soon soon as
he received the news.
Speaker 8: And people would start showing up from the reception to
help look or say, you know, we just learned about Jarrett.
We're going to pray right now, or we went off
to a room and said a prayer. Soon as we
found out in his group home, people loaded up their
clients in their vans and were out searching, with more
special needs people in their vans, all searching for Jarrett
as much as they could. I mean everyone in that
company showed up, They ceo on down, everyone was out searching.
Speaker 3: Like a domino effect. People began spreading the word of
Jarrett's disappearance. Through social media and neighborhood alerts, The Lions
prayed for Jarrett's safe return, while a growing army of
volunteers joined the effort to find him. As night fell,
hope began to dwindle, and Karatt and Blair found themselves
consumed by worry. They couldn't bear the thought of their
son out there alone, vulnerable to the dangers of the night.
They worried he could wander into the street and get
hit by a car or fall into the river. Kara
found herself driving through dark, empty streets, calling out Jarrett's name,
desperately hoping to catch a glimpse of him. The police
received several false leads, even a search with the police
dog was inconclusive. Around midnight, a woman called into the
station and said she'd seen Jarrett on her home security camera,
but according to the search perimeter, the camera was located
too far away in an entirely wrong area. The video
recording also took place too early in the day before
Jarrett was dropped off at the group.
Speaker 6: Home at three a m.
Speaker 3: Kara continued to drive through the streets of the city,
and then she saw someone walking along the road as
she neared the man, her heart sank. It wasn't Jarrett,
But as Kara drove past, the thought hit her that
struck deep into her heart.
Speaker 8: There was an individual, probably with mental illness, who was
out down the street, And I thought, do we even
see these people who are different? Do we really look
at them? Or is it just more comfortable for us
not to see them, not really look at them.
Speaker 3: Throughout the night, Kara and Blair's minds were plagued with
excruciating thoughts of what could be happening to their son.
Unable to find solace in sleep, they imagined the worst scenarios.
What if someone had kidnapped him and was abusing him,
What if he was injured? They were certain, no matter
the circumstances, he must be feeling terrified and alone. With
the break of dawn, resumed centered around Jarrett's last presume location,
the group home where Lucy had said she dropped him off.
Hundreds of people from communities near and far gathered at
a local church, turning it into a command center and
staging area for their efforts. After going door to door,
checking cameras, and searching anywhere they could think of, no
one could find any trace of Jarrett, and then a
breakthrough occurred. Back at the church, a woman emerged from
the crowd holding out her phone with a video on
the screen. She introduced herself as Angela and was the
same woman who had called the police at midnight. Here
is her explanation about what happened.
Speaker 7: When I first got to the pavilion, there was a
lot of commotion going on. Everyone was working really hard
to get information. I kind of stood there for a
while because I was confused at who to talk to.
But then I noticed one lady taking control, so I
took it to her and I said, I may have
a video. It might be the same person. She was
kind of busy talking to other people, so she said,
hold on a minute, I'll get back to you, you know.
And then she got back to me and I followed
them the video and she looked at it and she
just screamed, and she said, this is him, This is Garrett.
Speaker 3: This was Jarrett. Karrett and Blair were thrilled and confused.
How could Jarrett have gotten so far away from the
group home and where was he now? As the mystery deepened,
the search focused on the west side of town, and
hours passed and then back at the church, the manager
of the group home received a call saying someone had
found Jarrett. The Lions held their breath as the group
home manager explained to them what was happening. Amazingly, Lucy,
Jarrett's day program worker, had found Garrett. The Lions couldn't
believe it. Lucy had called her own manager, who was
driving Jarrett to the staging area right now. Kara's heart
filled with hope as she waited for Jarrett to arrive.
She and Blair called everyone to gather near the church's
pavilion and announced that Jarrett had been found. As an
excited buzz spread through the crowd, people gathered around the Lions.
Kara knew that all of the excitement would be overwhelming
for Jarrett. She turned to the crowd and asked them
to all be silent for Jarrett's return. She explained that
because of his autism, he needed less stimuli, and she
had no idea in what condition her son would be returning.
The day program manager's car arrived at the staging area,
and slowly Jarrett emerged from the vehicle. He was dehydrated
and sunburned. He was shirtless and shoeless. He only had
on his pull up and shorts. His backpack was gone.
He was definitely in shock, but he was alive and
he was there, and Karat and Blair immediately began thanking
God for his miraculous return. The lions rushed to Jarrett
and each of them took him by his arms and
walked him to the pavilion. What followed can only be
described by Kara as a sacred experience.
Speaker 8: Everybody as he got out of the car, it was
a total hush. It was more quiet than I could
have believed that many people could be. It was totally quiet.
And I also asked people to document it because I
knew I wouldn't be in a state to remember what
was happening, and I wanted to remember what it was
like to have him back.
Speaker 3: As relief and joy sank in, Kara and Blair began
to ask questions how Lucy found Jarrett. The time stamp
on the video was before Lucy said she'd dropped Jarrett
off at the group home. How could that be and
why had he been so far away? And wasn't it
kind of strange that the very person who says she
dropped him off happened to be the one who found him.
The police had the same questions, and when Lucy was
pressed for answers, a dark truth began to be revealed. Slowly,
the realization dawned on Carrot and Blair that they and
their hundreds of volunteers had been searching in the wrong
area all along due to a terrible lie. In fact,
Lucy had never dropped Jarrett off at the group home.
It turns out that Lucy lived in the area where
Angela had seen Jarrett on the security camera. According to Lucy,
she had taken Jarrett to her house for lunch against
protocol and had lost him. Lucy gave no explanation as
to what had happened to Jarrett while he was missing,
or how she had suddenly found him. What we do
know is that once Angela's video footage came to light,
the focus of the investigation shifted to Lucy's neighborhood. It
placed significant pressure on Lucy and helped investigators recognize that
her story didn't add up, and this all led to
Jarrett being found. Kara and Blair were stunned to learn
that the caregiver they had trusted with their child's life
could be responsible for Jarrett's disappearance. But despite their shock
and horror, Kara and Blair were also filled with incredible gratitude.
Even while everyone was looking in the wrong area due
to Lucy's deception, the Lions had been surrounded by people
who were supporting them and praying on Jarrett's behalf, and
because of that, word had spread clear to the other
side of town, where an Angela, a total stranger, had
captured Jara on her camera. Not all angels are in heaven,
and Angela was definitely an earthly angel. She had already
done her civic duty by calling the police, but when
the police wouldn't listen to her the night before, she
didn't give up. That next morning, Angela drove across the
city to show her video to Jarrett's parents. Angela's own
story is a miracle in and of itself. She'd been
eating a late lunch at her dining table, which was
unusual for her. Her dog only barks at other dogs,
but for some reason, it barked when Jarrett walked past.
Angela looked out the window and noticed a young man
who seemed to have motor skilled difficulties. Something didn't feel right,
but she couldn't put her finger on it. So she
went on with her day, and then that night, Angela
set her TV to record a ten o'clock news story
about her neighbor. When she returned from a late dinner
with her husband, Angela watched the news story and the
following segment highlighted a description of a missing autistic man.
She thought it sounded like the young man she'd seen
earlier that day and called the police.
Speaker 5: At last in fire its Batch, SHO can help you.
I was just watching tonight's news and they were talking
about there's an autistic young man that she's been missing with.
This afternoon, I saw a young man walking down my
street and he looked like he had some cognitive problems.
Speaker 3: And I don't think.
Speaker 9: Much about it until I just saw this and I
checked my Eccinity camera and I have him on my camera,
and I don't know if it's the same young man
you're looking for.
Speaker 6: Okay, and what time would it have been two.
Speaker 5: Twenty one this afternoon? My camera picked it up.
Speaker 6: Okay, what's your address?
Speaker 3: Unfortunately the police didn't follow up with her, but the
next morning she got on Facebook and saw a friend
mention that Jarrett was missing. This compelled Angela to take
her video and drive to the church. So many things
led up to the miracle of Jarrett's return.
Speaker 7: As I look back on everything, it was amazing that
small little things like I usually don't eat it late lunch,
my dog barked, which she usually doesn't when people will buy,
I had set my TV to record, And also the
gal that posted on Facebook that morning. I don't know
why I got on Facebook that early of the morning.
I would have never known any of this if it
had not been small little miracles that had happened along
the way. I think we all need to be more
aware of the simple things in life. By those small
and simple things, miracles do happen. And I'm happy for
that family that the miracle happened for them.
Speaker 8: But I think there were so many pieces of miracles
that led up to the biggest miracle of having our
sun returned to us, The miracle of having so many
people come, having so many people pray, so many people care.
The caring was such a tender mercy. But I think
there's so much bad in the world, and I think
so many of us think why bothered? So many people
bothered to spend time, effort at prayers and tears and
showed up for us in whatever capacity they could, whether
it was prayers or bottled water or walking through the heat,
all the different ways. I felt like, over and over again,
the prayers of all those people made that miracle happen,
Like there is no way God could did I the
pleading of that many people, it was so miraculous to see.
Speaker 3: Lucy, the day program worker was eventually charged by the
State Attorney General's office, and on March first of twenty
twenty four, was convicted and sentenced with a Class A
misdemeanor for criminal negligence of an endangered adult. She took
a plea deal admitting guilt in her treatment of Jarrett.
Kara and Blair are working on forgiving her to this day.
The Lions don't know what Jarrett endured while he was missing.
It is a mystery that they probably.
Speaker 6: Won't ever solve.
Speaker 3: It's clear that he still has PTSD and his family
is working to help him heal, which isn't easy when
he can't talk about what he went through. Kara and
Blair have also embarked on a mission to raise awareness
and prevent similar incidents from happen to other autistic individuals.
Their Facebook page, Jarrett's Miracle Story, has become a platform
to share valuable resources and support for parents of autistic children.
The Lyon family's journey is a testament to the power
of community, prayer and the unyielding hope that can overcome
even the darkest of circumstances.
Speaker 4: So much to unpack in this story, and first of all,
we don't really know what exactly happened to Jarrett, but
we do know that if Angela hadn't called, it probably
would have been so much worse.
Speaker 3: I know, Like the thing that really stood out to
me is that Jarrett was walking around in broad daylight
and Angela was the only one who saw him and
reported it. And then you think about the fact that
if her friend hadn't been on the news that night,
like how often do you have friends on the news, Like,
she wouldn't.
Speaker 4: Have set it to board, yeah right, yeah, and the
friend it was also on Facebook the next ding, and
just having to host about.
Speaker 3: This, just all these little things just nudging her in
the right direction.
Speaker 6: It's pretty miraculous.
Speaker 4: And you know what else is really cool is that
Kara didn't even know about Angela's side of things. Until
we actually had them both on the podcast. Yeah, it
was like a revelation to Kara that I mean she
already called in a miracle, but that just made it
even more incredible.
Speaker 3: Right, I mean, you think about if Angela hadn't seen
this video, hadn't made such an effort to turn it in,
Lucy may have gotten away with this.
Speaker 4: I know, that's scary.
Speaker 3: I mean it was like the smoking gun, like this
is evidence that he was right by your house. Yeah,
and really helped them find Jarrett.
Speaker 4: While in the timestamp too on the video showed that
there's no way right, you know that she really dropped
him off, But.
Speaker 3: She said she had been telling the truth exactly. And like,
as I was re editing this episode, I was listening
to the nine to one one calls again and there
was something that I hadn't really noticed last time. Pay
attention to this nine to one one call. This was
at the end of the initial nine to one one
call reporting him missing.
Speaker 5: Okay, are there any unusual or suspicious circumstances?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean said they program to say that they drop
him off, but there were two people at the house
and they didn't see him, and so for us, it's
unusual that he would get dropped off at home and
he wouldn't come in sight because he comes inspects the
first thing he does, he comes in site for us
NAT and for.
Speaker 2: His iPad, and he did not do that, So I
that's suspicious to me.
Speaker 6: Hmm wow.
Speaker 4: So the lady at the group home definitely suspected something
going on.
Speaker 3: Well, you can hear it in her voice that she's
just very hesitant, like she doesn't want to accuse anyone.
And I think sometimes, like for people who are very
honest people, it's hard to imagine someone could lie about
something like this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we want to believe the best of others.
Speaker 6: I know I do.
Speaker 4: It's hard, you know. Sometimes my husband will say, the
reason you don't understand the why that person thinks is
because you don't think like that, you know.
Speaker 6: Right, exactly. It's tough.
Speaker 4: But at the same time, we've got to learn to
listen to our gut, you know what I mean, Like, Yeah,
those feelings are usually from God trying to tell us something,
and we have to listen to those feelings.
Speaker 3: So well, yeah, and you can't help but wonder what
happened to him that night? Yeah, and maybe if they
had looked into Lucy a little sooner, he could have
been found that night, I know.
Speaker 4: And unfortunately Jarret can't tell us what happened to him himself,
which is really sad. There is still an investigation ongoing
with the company that lost him, so maybe someday we'll
have answers. I don't know, but in the meantime, we
really hope. I know, Lucy was young at the time
that this happened. Whatever happened, we hope that she has
learned from it and changed right.
Speaker 3: And that's part of why we kept her identity anonymous,
because there are so many unanswered questions, like we just don't.
Speaker 4: Know, Yeah, and we do believe everyone deserves a second chance.
So yeah, hopefully she's taking advantage of that. I hope
so so I have to say one of the greatest
takeaways for me from the story was when Kara said,
do we see people who are different than us, people
who are on the streets, or do we look away?
And I just think it's so important that we remember
that everyone is one of God's creations. Everyone is someone
that God loves.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the lesson that I hope that I can
teach my children is to really see the humanity in everyone.
Speaker 4: I don't think you can have that conversation too much
with your kids, honestly. Right, Okay, before we wrap up,
I just I talked to Caro Lyon and I just
asked her for an update about Jarrett, to see how
he's doing. And she said, he's now twenty six years old.
He's doing great. He loves Grinella of ours, learning how
to use his speech device and communicating a little bit
more through that. And she said, his smile just lights
up the room and everywhere he goes, he brings joy
to everyone around him just by being himself.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you can see it even through the pictures.
Speaker 3: If you want to see pictures of him, you can
follow their Facebook page Jared's Miracle Story. But you can
just see that he exudes happiness and joy and he's
just such a wonderful person. Yes, and we are so
grateful for them for sharing their story with us. Thank
you everyone else for joining us today. Make sure you
subscribe to our podcast, leave us a review, and share
this podcast with a friend or family member who could
use a reminder that God is still doing miracles today.
Speaker 5: He is.
Speaker 4: Thank you for joining us. If you have a miracle
to share, contact us at the miraclefiles dot com or
find us on social media. We release new episodes each Monday.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so don't forget Miracle mondays. Subscribe on your favorite
podcast platform and YouTube for amazing video content as well.
Speaker 6: Join us next
Speaker 4: Time as we discover more of God's miracles, and don't
forget to look for His light in your own lives.