A homeless man has been reunited with his family after being spotted in a cold weather picture captured by an Associated Press photographer. Nicholas Simmons disappeared on New Year’s Day, having left his parents’ home in upstate New York without his wallet or phone.
Paul and Michelle Simmons set up a Facebook page to help find their missing son, with the distraught pair alerted to the picture by someone on the social network. The image, which appeared in the USA Today newspaper, showed their 20-year-old son trying to warm himself against a steam grate in Washington DC.
The picture of Nicholas that led to him being reunited with his family
"It could have been months before we had a lead on his whereabouts. My baby looks so lost and I will be spending the rest of my life making him well," Michelle Simmons wrote on Facebook after her son had been found.
AP photographer Jacquelyn Martin, who was looking for shots to illustrate the cold snap that was blighting the US capital, took the picture. After the newspaper ran the image, the police picked up the young man and took him to hospital where he was reunited with his brother and father later that night.
It is still not known why the 20-year-old ran away.