An escaped 15-year-old inmate of Echo Glen Children’s Center is back in police custody.

A half-dozen Snoqualmie officers and State Troopers combed the woods in the margins of Interstate 90 Friday morning, Sept. 20, looking for the youth. With the aid of a State Patrol helicopter, he was found by 11 a.m.

The boy, who is white, five feet, 10 inches tall, with dark hair and eyes, was wearing a yellow jumpsuit when he left the juvenile detention center Thursday. He has a record of burglary.

The prisoner, about one month into his sentence, made his escape Thursday evening, Sept. 19, when his residential group returned from a trip to the gym, while a staff member was unlocking a door, according to Echo Glen Superintendent Don Mead. Two staff members normally accompanied the group of 12 between buildings, but only one returned with the residents to the cottage.

After the prisoner slipped away, he didn’t go very far.

“He had found a ditch and slept in it overnight, and in the morning, he headed out to the freeway,” Mead said.

An examination of the boy after his capture found him tired and hungry, but unscathed from his night out in the open.

The prisoner is back in custody at Echo Glen, where he has been sentenced to stay until November, 2014. He was sent to the facility after stealing a car, and is being treated for mental health issues at the facility.