A 14-year-old American boy who had been missing for three days after running off the Caribbean Princess cruise ship in a German port was found safe on Saturday, police and family said. Said.
Authorities said Aydin Brown had been on the cruise ship with his grandmother but disembarked after its scheduled stop in Rostock-Warnemunde on Thursday morning.
The boy was found around 10pm on Saturday in the city of Brandenburg, about 120 miles south of the port, Rostock police said in a statement.
“Through thorough investigations and the analysis of technical data, the Rostock Criminal Police were able to trace the young man, who was staying near Potsdam,” Rostock police said.
Potsdam borders Brandenburg – both cities are just west of Berlin – and Brown’s family was the first to confirm late Saturday that the boy had been found safe.
Authorities said a 19-year-old man Brown may have been trying to meet was with him Saturday night. “There is no evidence of criminal activity,” Rostock police said in a statement.
Early Saturday morning, state and local police released three new photos of Brown as the search continued. Two of the photos, taken from security cameras, showed an unidentified man who appeared to be talking to Brown. Rostock police said in an earlier statement that they hoped to identify the man as part of their search for the missing boy.
Princess Cruises said in a statement late Saturday that Brown had been reunited with his family and expressed gratitude to German authorities who found the boy.
“We are pleased that Aydin Brown has been found safe and sound,” the cruise line said in a statement Saturday. “We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the German authorities for their swift response and extraordinary efforts to locate Aydin after he disembarked in Warnemuende last Thursday morning.”
Princess Cruises said Friday that Brown’s grandmother left the ship hours after the search for Brown began and flew her mother to Germany.
The 12-day voyage will sail through the Baltic Sea, with destinations including Copenhagen, Denmark, and Stockholm, Sweden, according to CruiseMapper, a cruise ship tracking website. The round-trip cruise was scheduled to depart Southampton, England, on June 30 and return on July 12, according to the website.
