Abducted Florida boy found safe
Police search for convicted sex offender
(CNN) -- An 11-year-old boy who authorities say was abducted from his Florida school by a family friend was found late Friday walking up a highway ramp in northern Georgia, authorities said.
A massive manhunt continued for Frederick Fretz, 42, a convicted sex offender suspected by police of kidnapping the boy after picking him up from elementary school Tuesday in Dunnellon, Florida, about 400 miles from where he was found.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said the boy was trying to flag down a car when a Bartow County sheriff's deputy spotted him on an Interstate 75 ramp near Cartersville, Georgia.
"The boy is safe and appears to be unharmed," Bankhead said.
Dozens of police and investigators have surrounded a nearby wooded area, with a helicopter occasionally patrolling overhead. Dogs were also being brought in to assist with the search.
"The suspect is believed to be on foot in a wooded area in Bartow County," Bankhead said.
He said authorities earlier Friday found the vehicle in which the two had last been seen abandoned in Bartow County.
Authorities then received several tips from people who said they saw the man and child, Bankhead said.
Bankhead said a convenience store clerk said he saw Fretz alone near the store.
The spokesman said it was not clear how the boy and Fretz separated.
Authorities said Fretz was convicted of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old Pennsylvania boy in 1991, but was not registered as a sex offender in Florida, where he had been living with the boy and his father.
Authorities said the father was under house arrest and could go only to work and church.
Fretz typically drove him to and from work, and took the son back and forth to school.
