Missouri authorities, community search for 2 missing Amish boys

BOWLING GREEN, Mo. (AP) -- Searchers were scouring wooded areas of Pike County in northeast Missouri Wednesday, searching for two 12-year-old Amish boys missing since Tuesday afternoon.

The names of the boys have not been released.

Pike County Sheriff Jim Wells said the boys were sent to do chores about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, then failed to return to their school in a rural area of the county, about three miles from Bowling Green. A resident of the area reportedly saw the boys in the woods around 3 p.m., but they haven't been seen or heard from since.

The Missouri Department of Corrections, which operates a prison at Bowling Green in Pike County, provided search dogs. Members of the community were also involved in the search.

Bowling Green is about 75 miles north of St. Louis.