Keith Kennedy, the 25-year-old autistic man was found alive Sunday night after spending seven days lost in the wilderness south of Grantsburg, Wis. A group of St. Paul and Maple Grove firefighters found him at about 7 p.m. a mile west of Trade Lake Camp, lying next to a stream, Burnett County Sheriff Dean Roland said, according to Pioneer Press. He was weakened, dehydrated, with his body temperature a little low but safe.

The man was conscious and alert when a St. Paul firefighter found him in a wooded area inaccessible to vehicles, Roland said. It appeared the man had been there for three or four days.

“Other than some scrapes and cuts and being covered with bugs, he looked pretty darn good. We're having a party right now,” Roland was quoted as saying by the same source.

Teams of people which included hundreds of volunteers had scoured the fields, forest and rivers. The search included helicopters and boaters.

“It was an unbelievable shock,” said his mother, Linda Kennedy, who was at the Trade Lake Camp in Grantsburg with Keith’s dad and other family members. “I now believe in miracles. I really do.”

Kennedy disappeared from the camp on the June 15th after a nighttime snack. Members of the staff speculate that Kennedy sneaked back to the cafeteria to get more popcorn and then failed to return to his cabin for fear of punishment. But it is still not clear how Kennedy, who needed constant supervision, was able to disappear from the camp, as he did not have a history of such behaviour.