Authorities Hunt Escaped Teen-Ager Who Hurled Concrete from Overpass

Authorities are searching for a teen-age boy--convicted last year of throwing a chunk of concrete from a freeway overpass and severely injuring a motorist--who escaped from a minimum-security juvenile facility. They believe he may have fled with the help of his mother who was under court order not to see him.

But the mother, interviewed by a San Diego television station, said she doesn’t know the whereabouts of her son, even though she talks with him from “time to time.� She also said the youth had been mistreated at the facility.

“He’s cold. He’s tired. He’s hungry. He was getting beat up out there,� Sharon Hendricks told TV station KFMB (Channel 8) in a brief interview about the disappearance of her 16-year-old son, Lance Hough.

Carlos Armour, chief of the juvenile division for the San Diego County district attorney’s office, said the office is investigating whether Hendricks was involved in the escape.

The escape was “not an unusual occurrence,� Armour said. “It happens a lot. It’s probably a daily occurrence.�