A 15-year-old Burton boy has been missing for nearly two weeks, and the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office says the search for him is still active. Zyon Zaydin Townsend was reported missing by his family on October 8, after he was last seen at their home on Westgate Circle late in the evening on October 7. Deputies are continuing to look for him, with video coverage of the ongoing search airing as recently as this week.
According to WOWT 6 News, Beaufort County deputies remain engaged in the search for the missing teenager as of this week. The family's report placed Townsend's disappearance in Burton, an unincorporated residential community in central Beaufort County, according to The Island News.
What Zyon Townsend Was Last Seen Wearing
At the time he went missing, Townsend was described by law enforcement as standing approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing 120 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black shirt, black sweatpants, a black hat, and slippers, and he was carrying a Walmart bag, per Missing People in America. Those physical details remain the primary identifiers investigators and the public have to go on as the search continues.
The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office has asked anyone with information on Townsend's whereabouts to contact its non-emergency dispatch line at 843-524-2777, or to submit anonymous tips through Crime Stoppers of Beaufort County. The agency's call for tips came alongside its public appeal shortly after the family's initial report.
Aerial Search Resources Deployed in Lowcountry Terrain
Search efforts are backed by the sheriff's office's Aviation Unit, which was established in 2014 and operates two OH-58 Bell helicopters available around the clock for aerial searches of missing juveniles and fugitives, the agency notes. Those aircraft are built to cover the coastal marshes and wooded terrain that define much of the Lowcountry, the kind of ground that can make a ground search slow going.
The sheriff's office has recent experience resolving juvenile missing-person cases across state lines. In September, the agency coordinated a multi-state search that led to the safe recovery of 12-year-old Dominic Caruselle in Texas after he disappeared from Hilton Head, according to BFMG.news. That case illustrates the kind of interstate coordination available to local investigators when a juvenile case extends beyond county lines, though no such development has been reported in Townsend's case.
How Runaway Cases Are Logged and Resolved
Under South Carolina law, agencies that take in juvenile runaway reports log missing minors into the National Crime Information Center database, while the underlying juvenile records stay strictly confidential, according to the City of Columbia Police Department. That NCIC entry allows a missing child's profile to be flagged to law enforcement across state lines.
Burton itself has no independent municipal police department, since it is an unincorporated community that relies on the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office for primary law enforcement and emergency response, per the Post and Courier. That jurisdictional arrangement is standard across unincorporated parts of the county.
Statewide, more than 3,500 missing children reports are filed across South Carolina each year, with the majority involving runaway teenagers, according to data from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division cited by ABC News 4. Nationally, the pattern is similar: 93% of nearly 29,000 missing children cases tracked by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children involve runaways, and youths aged 15 to 17 account for 74% of endangered runaway reports, per The Missing Child Project.
Those numbers come with a reassuring counterpoint. Data from Child Find of America shows that about 99% of runaway children eventually return home safely, with more than half returning within the first week of disappearing. As the search for Townsend continues, the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office is still urging anyone with information on his whereabouts to come forward.
