14 DAY TRIAL // Nicholas A. Simmons' family were desperately trying to find him after he went missing on New Year's day. The 20-year-old man left his home from Greece, near Rochester, New York and was found days later homeless in Washington D.C.
While reading the papers, the family noticed a picture of a man thoroughly resembling their missing son. At a closer look, they noticed it was actually him in a photo of USA Today news republished by the Democrat and Chronicle about freezing temperatures in the states.
The desperate family contacted local authorities in order to find him and then rushed to Washington to bring their son back home. The Greece police contacted Washington law enforcement officers who found the man and took him to the hospital until the family arrived.
The photo of the missing man was made close to Washington's U.S. Capitol by Jacquelin Martin, a photographer with the Associated Press and was showing a man identified as Nick, warming himself up next to a Steam gate covered in blankets, according to Daily Mail.
The story of the missing man found in Washington with the help of a photo made it all over social media sites with the Simmons family and relatives posting about the amazing discovery. For days, they have been struggling to find their son with no result, and he finally turns out pictured as a homeless man miles away from home in an article about the weather.
“Nick is alive and obviously not well. [We] are going to get him home safe and this is by far the greatest example of God's love and divine intervention I have ever experienced. I am beyond able to put into words how I am feeling,” Michelle Simmons, Nick's mother, wrote on her Facebook page.
From 126 photos connected to the freezing temperatures article, only three were showing Nick Simmons and only one was actually picturing his face. It so happened that this particular image was chosen making it the only lead the police had in order to find the missing young man and reunite him with his desperate family.