Missing Brooksville boy found safe after search at Tom Varn Park

A routine afternoon at Tom Varn Park turned into a fast-moving search when 14-year-old Bryan Luke Bennett was reported missing from the Brooksville park and deputies said he ran away from his caretakers around 3 p.m. Witnesses later told authorities they saw him running toward The Quarry Disc Golf Course, a clue that helped narrow the search to the park and its surrounding recreation area.

The Hernando County Sheriff's Office later said Bennett was found safe. The department thanked the public and media partners for the tips that came in during the search, and the case was resolved the same day before it grew into a longer missing-child investigation.

For Hernando County families, the incident shows how quickly a child can disappear in a place built for recreation. Tom Varn Park sits at 301 Darby Lane in Brooksville and includes a 1.5-mile loop trail, playground, restrooms, horseshoe courts, adult basketball courts, sand volleyball courts, youth softball fields, a softball stadium and a splash pad. The City of Brooksville says parks are open from dawn to dusk unless special approval is granted, which makes close supervision especially important as children move between trails, fields and play areas.

The search also highlights the value of precise first reports. Deputies had a time, a location and a direction of travel, all of which gave them a workable starting point. In a park setting, that kind of detail can be the difference between a brief search and a prolonged emergency response.

The same area has been the focus of other public gathering activity, including the Good Neighbor Trail ribbon cutting scheduled for May 22, 2024, at Tom Varn Park. That mix of trails, sports fields and community events makes the park a busy civic space, but it also means adults need to act immediately if a child is not where he or she is supposed to be.

Florida’s Missing Child Alert system, created in 2003 and run through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Missing Endangered Persons Information Clearinghouse, is designed to quickly spread information when a child under 18 is believed to be in danger of death or serious bodily injury and there is no indication of abduction. If an investigation later points to an abduction, the alert can evolve into an AMBER Alert.

In Hernando County records, a recovered runaway is often classified as “Runaway Returned,” a small procedural note that reflects how quickly some cases can end once officers and the public get the right information. In this case, that speed mattered, and it left Bennett safe by the end of the day.