CLACKAMAS COUNTY, Ore. — The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office is asking for help finding 16-year-old Doug Faoa.
Faoa was last seen on Oct. 10 when he left the Inn Home for Boys at 8940 SE 72nd Ave. He was supposed to head to the Clackamas Town Center and be back by 9 p.m. but never returned.
Several people have called our newsroom and posted on social media wanting to know what is going on here.
Dana Santana posted on Facebook saying, "Why is this taking two weeks to get reported? System failed this young man. How sad. Why is he not getting the same attention as the University of Portland Student. This is very upsetting. I hope he is found safe."
Tracy Hargrove also posted saying, "Why are we just hearing about this young man, but there was news all over for the white college student?"
To answer that, let's start from the beginning. Faoa left his home in Albany on October 10.
“His smile will light up a room,” said Doug Faoa’s foster mother Carol Palmer. “He's great with our grandkids, our grandkids love him to death. My whole family has welcomed him into our family.”
Palmer said Faoa has lived with her for nearly three years and recently agreed he needed more help, so he was set to spend 90 days at the Inn Home for Boys in Clackamas County.
“We had decided that he needed a 90 day treatment to work on some issues,” Palmer explained. “He wasn’t as happy as a kid should be, we’ll just leave it at that, and maybe he needed some therapy, more therapy than what he was getting here.”
The plan though was always for Faoa to return to Palmer’s home when he was finished. She said he took off after only being there for a few hours.
“He was only there for about a couple hours and he asked to go for a walk and then never returned for curfew,” Palmer said.
Doug was supposed to be back at 9 p.m. but never showed.
The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office says the treatment center called them around 1 a.m. andreported Doug as a runaway, instead of a missing person.
Law enforcement then didn't mention anything to media, including our newsroom, because they handle runaway cases differently than a missing person believed to be in immediate danger.
In the last twelve months, that treatment center called the sheriff's office 98 times to report a runaway.
The majority returned to the facility within a matter of hours and only 13 calls ended up as official runaway reports according to the sheriff's office.
Then there's DHS who wouldn't confirm Doug was missing until Monday because they were confused over what they could and couldn't say under state law since he's in the foster care system.
The case didn't get any attention until state senator Sarah Gelser tweeted about it.
Faoa's foster mom is upset it took this long to get the word out and wants him to know he's loved and people are looking for him.
“I just want him to know that he still has his home, and I want him to come home and I'm worried”, Palmer said. “I told him to memorize my number, that we could work out anything no matter what happened to call me and we could figure out whatever it was, we could figure it out and I would bring him home”
Officials say he was reportedly spotted around 4 p.m. on Oct. 10 at the OC Point shopping center near Clackamas Community College.
Faoa is 5’9” with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing gray jeans, a gray-and-white hoodie and a black vest.
Call 911 if you see him.