Non-verbal autistic boy, 6, walks out of Kentucky woods to greet rescuers on horseback after three days missing

Roman Heilman, a non-verbal autistic six-year-old, emerged from dense Kentucky woodland and walked straight up to a team of horse trail riders who had been searching for him for three days. Jacob Mullins, from Louisiana, where he rides horse trails, said Roman came out of the bushes calling out "E-I-E-I-O horsey" and walked directly onto the trail. He was found roughly a mile and a half from his home on Tadpole Road in Louisa, without clothing, with scratches from thorny plants.

Mullins and West Virginia welder Patrick Finley led a ten-strong horseback team that had ridden more than 14 miles through the woods before daylight to find him.

Volunteers wrapped Roman in a sweatshirt and carried him down the mountain on horseback; rescuers declared him 'tougher than pig iron.'

The three-day operation across Lawrence County drew more than 70 volunteers, with aerial support from drones and a helicopter, while community members kept search crews supplied with food, water and flashlights throughout.