Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday that Michael McCall, Jr., 32, was located in Noxapater, Mississippi and is being returned home. His mother, Adell White, said the community was integral in his location and safe return.

“I would like to thank everyone and [express] a very special thank you to Chris West and the Sheriff’s department of Lowndes County,” White said. “I would also like to send a special thank you to Shirley Carlisle, Erica Barnett, and the entire Carastar Health staff family of the Montgomery Area Mental Health Authority that work tirelessly alongside the Sheriff’s department in locating my son and returning him home safely. I am so grateful for all of you.”

According to White, McCall, a black male with black hair and brown eyes, was believed to have been last seen by family in mid-February in the Pine Street area of Hayneville sometime in the afternoon of Feb. 16. 

Lowndes County Sheriff’s Corporal Stephen Ziglar said McCall was considered endangered due to a mental condition. The Sheriff’s office noted in a social media post on March 2 that McCall is diagnosed as paranoid Schizophrenic and had not been taking his medication as prescribed.

White said McCall had been living with a relative until his disappearance. She reported him missing once she discovered he had left the relative’s residence. Later, she learned McCall had actually been dropped off for a mental health appointment in Hayneville around Jan. 27 and was hospitalized for mental health concerns in Greenville after the appointment.

“He was stable and living in a trailer with everything he could possibly need,” White said. “He left his trailer and was staying here and there and ended up staying with his aunt in Calhoun. And that’s where I thought he was the whole while he was in the hospital. But, his aunt dropped him off in Hayneville. That was on Jan. 27.”

According to Ziglar, McCall was believed to be in the Louisville, Mississippi area before being located. White said he was transferred from Greenville to Dothan and then to Mississippi while hospitalized.

“I later found out that the Dothan facility sent him to Mississippi,” White said. “And he stayed there until they let him out on Feb. 27. But they let him out [in Mississippi]. He’s not from there and doesn’t have any relatives there.”

Once McCall was reported missing, Lowndes County Sheriff’s investigators entered him into the national database for missing and endangered persons, Ziglar explained. That listing enabled law enforcement, family, and neighbors to cooperate in the effort to find McCall and return him safely to Hayneville.

“The Crimestoppers app is actually how we located him,” Ziglar said. 

White later learned that once released from the Mississippi hospital, McCall rented a hotel room until his funds ran out. After that a Mississippi woman took him in, Ziglar said, and by searching McCall’s name on the internet she learned that he was listed as a missing and endangered person.

“When [McCall] checked his Facebook, he saw that people were saying he was reported missing,” Ziglar said. “His neighbor (in Mississippi) Googled his name and learned he was missing. McCall contacted Crimestoppers and they put him on the phone with me. He was located in Noxapater, Mississippi.”

Ziglar has been returned to Hayneville, where he is undergoing evaluation for treatment.

“We got him yesterday,” Lowndes County Sheriff Chris West said Wednesday. “His mother received a lot of help and we received a lot of help from the community on this case. Mrs. White wanted to make sure everyone knew how grateful she was.”