11/04/2026
Jacob Mullins, an avid horse trail rider from Louisa, said he got a text Monday night from his friend Patrick Finley, about Roman Heilman, the 6-year-old boy with autism who went missing Nov. 1 from his home and was thought to be in a wooded mountain area.
Mullins said Finley, a welder who lives across the state line in West Virginia, texted, “Let’s take off work and go find this kid.”
“So that’s what we did,” said Mullins, who owns J&J Window Cleaning in Louisa.
Mullins said while they and a team of 10 horse trail riders were looking for Roman on Tuesday, the boy and a little dog walked out of the bushes about 1 1/2 miles from his home where he walked away. Roman “was covered in briar scratches,” but was in good shape, Mullins said.
“We were all on horses in the woods before daylight. And we rode the horses a total of 14- plus miles, trekking around trying to find him. We found him probably about a mile and a half from his house. He came out of the bushes saying ‘E-I-E-I-O horsey.’ He just walked right out of the bushes over onto a horse trail.”
“He was naked and he was scratched and he had a little dog with him. He ate a banana and drank some water and then we brought him off the hill,” said Mullins.
Roman’s pants, jacket and diaper were found earlier in the search, authorities said.
“When I left, he was in the ambulance. He was, supposedly in good shape, just a little dehydrated.
It looks like he was just traveling the mountaintops, really,” Mullins said. “You can see his footprints where he played in a mud hole.”
Mullins said he thinks the motorized vehicles “looking for Roman in the mountain range were scaring him” due to the noise.
“And I think without the horses, he wouldn’t have come out,” Mullins said.
Amazing story! So glad he is safe and doing well.
Source: Lexington Herald Leader
