Louisville police are searching for a 7-year-old boy and a 15-year-old teenager who walked away together from the same address in the city's Taylor-Berry neighborhood late Wednesday night, with investigators saying the teen may be experiencing a mental health crisis. Braylen Spearmen, 7, and Joshua Dixon, 15, were last seen around 9 p.m. in the 2400 block of Lindbergh Drive, according to police.
The Louisville Metro Police Department announced the disappearance through an Operation Return Home alert, a public notification tool used when a missing child or adult is considered endangered but does not meet the stricter legal criteria required for an AMBER, Golden, or Green Alert, according to LMPD
. Under the department's Standard Operating Procedure 8.32, the designation allows officers to push out urgent public notifications without having to meet federal abduction thresholds, according to
Louisville Metro Police Department policy
. LMPD said Dixon may be experiencing a mental crisis, though the department has not released further detail on his condition or on the relationship between the two missing youths.
Anyone with information on the pair's whereabouts is asked to call 911 or LMPD's non-emergency line at 574-LMPD (5673).
How Louisville Handles Missing Youth Cases
The 2400 block of Lindbergh Drive sits off Algonquin Parkway, within the patrol territory of LMPD's Fourth Division. LMPD's Missing Persons Squad fields roughly 2,000 missing person reports every year, and juveniles between 13 and 17 make up about 70 percent of that caseload, the department reports. Yet only around 75 of those annual reports escalate to an Operation Return Home or Golden Alert broadcast, and fewer than five a year involve suspected foul play, per the Missing Persons Squad's own figures — a reminder that the public alert issued for Spearmen and Dixon signals heightened concern rather than routine procedure.
Department policy carries no mandatory 24- or 72-hour waiting period before a report can be filed, with officers instructed that immediate filing lets search efforts begin without delay. Missing-person reports must be entered into NCIC within two hours and sent to the NCIC Unit.
Mental Health Risk Factors in Runaway Cases
Nationally, runaways accounted for 92 percent of the 32,167 missing child cases supported by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2025, according to the organization. Research published in Pediatrics has found that youth dealing with behavioral or mental health struggles face a markedly higher statistical risk of running away and of suffering additional harm while away from home.
Louisville also runs a 24/7 Crisis Call Diversion Program that pairs 911 dispatchers with crisis triage workers from Seven Counties Services, aiming to connect people in behavioral health crises with mobile mental health responders rather than police alone, according to LouisvilleKY.gov. Residents who witness or experience a mental health crisis can dial 988, or call 911 to request a non-law enforcement Deflection response when there is no immediate physical threat, per the city.
Other Missing-Person Coverage
Hoodline has also covered a search involving 15-year-old Brielle “Kyree” de Senneville Freano. LMPD has not released additional details about Spearmen, Dixon, or the circumstances that led them to leave the Lindbergh Drive address together. Police continue to ask anyone with information to come forward as the search continues.
