--- title: Watch: Missing Boy's Father Learns His Son Was Found in the Basement description: Charles Bothuell was rendered speechless when HLN's Nancy Grace told him the news canonical: https://time.com/2926987/charles-bothuell-hln-son-basement/ author: Noah Rayman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-26T12:25:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T08:57:39.465Z og:title: Watch this Missing Boy's Father Learn on Live Television That His Son Was Found in the Basement og:description: Charles Bothuell was rendered speechless when HLN's Nancy Grace told him the news og:url: https://time.com/2926987/charles-bothuell-hln-son-basement/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a7e9547ce6aa5c1/6986995a810bbb642ec925b1/nancy-grace-missing-boy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: nancy grace missing boy og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch this Missing Boy's Father Learn on Live Television That His Son Was Found in the Basement twitter:description: Charles Bothuell was rendered speechless when HLN's Nancy Grace told him the news twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a7e9547ce6aa5c1/6986995a810bbb642ec925b1/nancy-grace-missing-boy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Missing Boy's Father Told Son Found in Basement on Live TV > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=d1b458b0-1ffe-48d5-8b24-85dc2f448607&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Missing Boy’s Father Told Son Found in Basement on Live TV [Watch (HLS stream): Missing Boy’s Father Told Son Found in Basement on Live TV](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nxMSr5VU.m3u8) (3:04)  _Published 2014-06-26. During interview, Nancy Grace tells father his missing son has been found_  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Jun 26, 2014 12:25 PM UTC During interview, Nancy Grace tells father his missing son has been found  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Jun 26, 2014 12:25 PM UTC The 11-day search for a missing child in Detroit [took a bizarre turn](http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/25/us/michigan-missing-boy-found/index.html?hpt=hp%5Ft1) on Wednesday, when the 12-year-old was found hiding in the basement of his father’s home. The perplexing case unfolded on live television when, during an interview on HLN, the boy’s father, Charles Bothuell, was informed that his son Charlie had been found in the basement. The incredulous father appeared bewildered and breathless, taking a moment to recover. “I checked my basement,” Bothuell said. “The FBI checked my basement. The police checked my basement. My wife checked my basement. I’ve been down there several times. We’ve all been checking.” The boy’s discovery concludes a search that began on June 14 when Charlie walked out of the home refusing to do chores, his father had told HLN earlier. But it also raises new questions. Charlie was found barricaded behind boxes and a large five-gallon drum, Detroit Police Chief James Craig [told CNN affiliate XWYZ](http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/25/us/michigan-missing-boy-found/index.html?hpt=hp%5Ft1). “There’s no way he could have erected his makeshift area of concealment,” he said. He later told reporters that he was not ruling out the possibility that an adult was responsible for hiding the boy, [according to CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/25/us/michigan-missing-boy-found/index.html?hpt=hp%5Ft1). “We’re not ruling that out,” he said. “It would be hard for me to sit here and tell you that someone didn’t know Charlie was there, but I can’t say definitively.” After his interview on HLN, Charles Bothuell, the father, responded angrily to questions about who may have known of his son’s whereabouts, CNN reports. “For anybody to imply that I somehow knew my son was in the basement is absurd and wrong. I love my son,” he said. “I’m glad that he’s home.” \[[_CNN_](http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/25/us/michigan-missing-boy-found/index.html?hpt=hp%5Ft1)\] ## Transcript To the father of a missing 12 year old boy, Charlie. With me is his father Charlie Bothell. Charlie, we are getting reports, that your son has been found, in your basement. Sir? Mr. Bothuell are you, are you. What? Yeah. We are getting, reports that your son has been found, alive, in your basement. What? Yes. That's what, if, if you could hand me that wire very quickly. Yeah, we're getting that right now. From, from, yeah. How, how could your son be, alive in your basement? I, I have, I have no idea. Now, this is just a report that we are hearing out of, Detroit, that we're trying to confirm. Oh, God, please! Everybody in New York, please, get on it. Let me know when we get Charlie Langton from WWJ. sir, did you, check your basement? I checked the basement. The FBI checked my basement. The Detroit Police checked my basement. My wife checked my basement. I've been down this several times. We've all been checking. How. Okay, this is what we, we're hearing, that the missing 12- year- old boy has been found alive and well in his father's basement. Now, this is what I don't understand why you guys would've reported he's missing. And all our viewers have been on the lookout for him. He's been missing for 11 days. We've been, we've been on the lookout for him. We searched that entire house, repeatedly. The FBI searched. The Detroit police searched. We've all searched. God, they brought dogs, everything. Everybody has searched. What, oh God, my son. Have you checked your cell phone? My cell phone is dead. I, I and I actually, getting down here, I left it in the car charging because it, it, it had, it had, it, had died on me. Oh God. And you're telling us that you searched your basement and your wife searched your basement? I searched my basement, my wife searched my basement, the FBI searched my basement, the Detroit Police searched my basement. We've all searched my basement multiple times. I mean, we, yes. They had the dogs search the, we, we've all searched the basement. The dogs searched my basement. Oh God. Okay. What, you know what, I'm gonna give you, a chance to, call home and see what, you can find out. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2926987/charles-bothuell-hln-son-basement/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2926987/charles-bothuell-hln-son-basement/"},"headline":"Missing Boy's Father Told Son Found in Basement on Live TV","datePublished":"2014-06-26T12:25:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T08:57:39.465Z","description":"Charles Bothuell was rendered speechless when HLN's Nancy Grace told him the news","url":"https://time.com/2926987/charles-bothuell-hln-son-basement/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Detroit"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a7e9547ce6aa5c1/6986995a810bbb642ec925b1/nancy-grace-missing-boy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a7e9547ce6aa5c1/6986995a810bbb642ec925b1/nancy-grace-missing-boy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"nancy grace missing boy","caption":"","creditText":"CNN","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2926987/charles-bothuell-hln-son-basement/","name":"Missing Boy's Father Told Son Found in Basement on Live TV"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Missing Boy’s Father Told Son Found in Basement on Live TV","description":"During interview, Nancy Grace tells father his missing son has been found","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/nxMSr5VU/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-06-26T12:56:25.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nxMSr5VU.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/2926987/charles-bothuell-hln-son-basement/","duration":"PT3M4S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/2926987/charles-bothuell-hln-son-basement/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```