Searchers find 3 missing Wisconsin teens

Three Wisconsin boys feared to have gotten lost in an abandoned mine in Wisconsin were found safe Monday according to emails from the Dodge County Sheriff's Office.

The boys -- Tate Rose and Zachary Heron, both 16, and 15-year-old Samuel Lein -- had last been seen Sunday, and Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt said their bikes were found off a road near an entrance to the mine.

The sheriff announced in a two-sentence email on Monday afternoon that the boys had been located after a search that involved 100 people, dogs and thermal imaging. But Schmidt offered no other information about the boys being found.

Sheriff's office communications director Christine Churchill said in a separate email that the boys were safe and a news release would come later Monday. She didn't immediately respond to a follow-up message asking where the boys were located.

Searchers had concentrated their efforts on the mine, which Schmidt described as a "vast maze" of interconnected tunnels that goes on for 4 miles.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee owns the mines. University officials estimate 100,000 bats live in the mine, which is among the Midwest's largest winter shelters for bats.