Home again: Questions abound, but father says Brennan not talking much

BOUNTIFUL — For the media, 11-year-old Brennan Hawkins demonstrated what he calls "midget mode," crouching with his sweatshirt pulled over his knees, a position he assumed while lost in the Uinta Mountains for four days.

And he remained in midget mode for the duration of a press conference Wednesday in front of the Hawkins family home while his parents and siblings answered reporters' questions.

For sure, they're glad to have him home.

But there are still questions to which searchers and his family don't have answers. Among them: Where did Brennan spent 90 hours in the Uintas wilderness? Why did he walk away from a Boy Scout camp? And how many searchers did he see before he was found?

But Brennan isn't talking much, said his father, Toby.

"I don't know if he's really ready to tell us," he said. "It's going to take a little while to get everything out."

Brennan was found about noon Tuesday near Lily Lake in the High Uintas. He had been missing since Friday when he apparently became lost while walking from a climbing wall in the East Fork of the Bear River Boy Scout Reservation back to his main camp area.

Volunteer searcher Forrest Nunley, who had taken Tuesday off from his house painting job in Salt Lake City, found the boy in remarkably good shape and just a few miles from the Scout camp. He said he spotted the boy on the trail after Brennan came out from hiding from a group of searchers on horseback who were in front of Nunley. Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds, whose office led the search-and-rescue effort, called it a unique case, saying it was the first time since he became sheriff that there has been an extended search for a person who eventually turned up alive and well.

A storm blew into the search area later Tuesday, and the outcome could have been much worse for the boy.

"I don't think it's coincidence at all (when we found him); I think it was divine intervention," Edmunds said.

The sheriff's office isn't sure why Brennan hid from searchers. Based on the area where volunteers and rescuers were looking, Edmunds is surprised they didn't find him within the first day.

At a press conference earlier Wednesday — one that Brennan didn't attend because he was sleeping — Toby and Jody Hawkins said their son can get very focused.

The two lessons he seemed to focus on during his ordeal were ones his parents taught him: Stay on the trail. Don't talk to strangers.

Unfortunately, the two lessons seemed to be in conflict because he didn't know most of the rescuers looking for him.