A Grand Forks boy that has been missing for about six years has been found.
Valor Howell went missing from Grand Forks back in December of 2004 and was found in the Phoenix, Ariz. area – he is now 10-years of age.
Valor and mother Jamie Howell went missing during a custody dispute at the time and there is a Canada-wide arrest warrant for Jamie Howell for abduction.
A call to the Chandler, Ariz. police department has not yet been returned.
The boy's father Garrett Taylor was relieved that his son had been found.
"The Grand Forks (RCMP) were the first ones to contact me," Taylor told the Grand Forks Gazette.
"Staff Sgt. Jim Harrison contacted me and said that Valor had been located in Arizona. At first I wasn't too excited because I had (possible) locations given to me in the past and then they just don't pan out – to be honest, I just thought it was another one of those."
He says that before he had a chance to look into the matter, Const. Nancy Martin from the Ottawa RCMP contacted him.
"She handles foreign affairs and she informed that he's not just been located, he's actually in protective custody and they are in the (process) of returning him to me (in Kamloops)."
Taylor is planning on heading down to Arizona on Friday (June 3) and says that he will be leaving Kelowna airport at 7 a.m. and will arrive in Phoenix, Ariz. at around 12:20 p.m.
He said that Valor is meeting with social services on Thursday and his well-being will be assessed at that time.
"From that, we're going to decide how long I stay down there before I bring him back up here," explained Taylor.
"If he's really shook up and nervous, we're going to wait a few days, do a series of visits and then bring him up. If he's eager to go and looking forward to everything, we'll bring him up right away."
The RCMP referred enquiries to the Department of Justice, which declined comment citing it did not have access to incident reports.