Missing Detroit Boy Charlie Bothuell Found in Dad's Basement

A boy who had been missing for 11 days was found alive and well in his father's basement, Detroit police said.

Charlie Bothuell disappeared on June 14. His father, Charles Botheull IV, had appeared on Nancy Grace to appeal for help finding the boy.

The boy's father was stunned to silence when he appeared to learn on live TV that Charlie had been found.

After breathing heavily, puffing his cheeks and clutching his chest, all the father could muster after several moments of silence was "What?" when told by TV host Grace of the reports streaming in.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Wednesday that the 12-year-old was found crouching behind a makeshift barricade of boxes in the basement, NBC station WDIV reported.

"I've never seen anything quite like this," Craig told reporters. "But the outcome - I couldn't be happier."

He said Charlie has been removed from the home and will "get two things - medical treatment and some food."

It seemed unlikely that Charlie could have built the barricade himself, Craig said.

"I checked my basement, the FBI checked my basement ... I've been down there several times"

The boy's father had said the last time he saw Charlie was at his home, when his son took a bathroom break from working out and never came back.

Craig said Wednesday that Charlie's father had been administered a lie-detector test by the FBI, but the results were inconclusive, WDIV reported.

The boy was in police custody overnight and will undergo medical tests, according to WDIV.

Craig told WDIV that the townhouse previously had been searched several times with a cadaver dog, adding that investigators were not certain Charlie had been in the basement the whole time he was missing.

Charlie's father said the same in the dramatic interview with Nancy Grace where he learned the boy had been found.

"I checked my basement, the FBI checked my basement, the Detroit Police checked my basement... I've been down there several times," he said, pausing to clutch his heart and stop for deep breaths.

Grace pressed the father several times, asking if the home had been searched and if he had gone to the basement.

"God, they brought dogs, everything ... Everybody has searched," Charles Bothuell IV said. "Oh god, my son."

NBCNEWS