WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – Marie Murphy said her Thursday morning started like any other.

The longtime New Hanover County Schools bus driver was picking up students when her bus monitor, Valeria Davis, showed her a picture of a missing student – 14-year-old Raheim Williams – who had been reported missing overnight.

“I had a WECT (notification) that came up, so I opened it up, and I saw this teenager missing, and I read it,” Davis said. “I went to Marie and said, ‘this boy rides our bus.’”

Murphy and Davis’ bus, 472, takes Williams every day to Williston Middle School. After seeing that he was missing, they were hopeful he would be at his usual bus stop.

“I kinda think about my own kids,” Murphy said. “I just said a little prayer while I was driving, that if I see him at least walking, I’m gonna pick him up and get him to school.”

Fortunately, at their final stop of the morning, they saw Williams, who’s been diagnosed with autism, standing with a friend near the 200 block of Mercer Avenue, according to the Wilmington Police Department.

After he got on the bus, Murphy and Davis told Williams he was on the news and had been reported missing. He was confused but calm, they said. He said he had gone to visit a friend.

“I tried talking to him, and he was telling me he was wrong for doing that. He said all he wanted to do was go to school,” Davis said.

Police had searched for Williams from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. Thursday morning near his apartment on Racine Drive with no luck.

But Davis called her supervisors, Laura Sebert and Stacy Greene, who then called 911 and gave her directions. They said they were concerned about Williams’ safety since he lives near UNCW, a busy area for traffic.

“We were very relieved,” Sebert said. “We were just concerned about his safety.”

Murphy has been a bus driver for 25 years, but said something like this had never happened before.

“This was really a shocker right here,” Murphy said. “Just to know that you’re transporting a child that’s missing, that touches your heart.”

Murphy drove the bus to New Hanover High School, where two WPD officers met Williams and helped return home safely.

For all involved, it was a sigh of relief.

“Just being a mother to the kids. That’s it,” Murphy said. “When they go away from their mother, we take them under our wing.”