A 15-year-old Lake City boy who walked away from an alternative school campus this week has been found safe, according to a Tuesday update from local authorities. Daniel Mason ran away from the Richardson Educational Center campus on SE Pennsylvania Avenue, and by the time the news broke publicly, he had already been located.
The Columbia County Sheriff's Office shared the missing juvenile alert on Facebook, describing Mason as 5 feet 8 inches tall and about 150 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing khaki pants, black tennis shoes, and a burnt orange t-shirt. The post noted Mason went missing Tuesday, and the update confirming he had been located safely followed the same day.
The Lake City Police Department had requested that anyone with information on Mason's whereabouts come forward, asking the public to call 386-719-2005. That non-emergency number is operated by the Columbia County Combined Communications Center, which runs 24/7 joint dispatch for both the Lake City Police Department and the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, according to the City of Lake City. The sheriff's office also offered residents an anonymous option through columbiacrimestoppers.net for those who preferred not to call in directly.
How Lake City's Agencies Share the Load
Chief Gerald Butler leads the Lake City Police Department, which directs city law enforcement operations from headquarters on NW Main Blvd, per the City of Lake City. Sheriff Wallace Kitchings, who was elected in August 2024 after more than 30 years with the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, including a stint as undersheriff, oversees the county agency that posted the alert, according to the Lake City Reporter.
The two agencies routinely lean on each other. Lake City police and Columbia County deputies regularly share dispatch, air support, and SWAT resources across their overlapping jurisdictions, and joint perimeters are standard procedure during emergency searches, according to Action News Jax. That kind of coordination shows up again this year in another form: in July, the Florida Board of Education approved a new Bachelor of Science in Public Safety Administration at Florida Gateway College, a program backed by both Kitchings and Butler to build interagency crisis management training locally.
Where Mason Went Missing From
Richardson Educational Center, located at 646 SE Pennsylvania Street, serves as an alternative education facility within the Columbia County School District, offering non-traditional academic programs, according to the Columbia County School District. It was from that campus that Mason left before the alert went out.
What Florida Law Requires — and How It Treats Runaways
State law sets a tight clock on cases like this one. Under Florida Statute Section 937.021, agencies receiving a missing child report must notify all on-duty officers immediately and enter the case into the Florida Crime Information Center and National Crime Information Center databases within two hours, per the Florida Senate. The law also bars requiring any court order before accepting a missing child filing.
Once a runaway case like Mason's is resolved, the state's approach shifts away from punishment. Florida Statute Chapter 984 governs runaway minors under the Children in Need of Services and Families in Need of Services framework, steering agencies toward non-judicial family counseling, voluntary support, and temporary shelter care rather than juvenile detention, according to the Florida Senate.
Nationally, runaway cases dominate the missing-child landscape but also resolve at high rates. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reports that 92% of the 32,167 missing child cases it assisted with in 2025 involved runaway juveniles, and the organization maintained a 90% overall recovery rate, per MissingKids.org. The group treats runaway cases with urgency given the heightened exposure to physical danger and exploitation that can come with time spent away from home.
Anyone with future tips on local cases can still reach investigators through the Combined Communications Center's non-emergency line, or submit information anonymously to Crime Stoppers of Columbia County online or by phone, per News4JAX.
