HAMPSTEAD – Devin Frenette's 29-hour adventure sounds like a page from "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," but in his case, it was pistachio ice cream instead of porridge.

The 9-year-old Hampstead boy who disappeared Monday afternoon apparently wandered through the woods behind his house and somehow ended up inside Jeff and Claire Gill's cozy house at 48 Brown Hill Road.

To the more than 250 people who spent Monday and Tuesday searching for him by air and on land, Devin seemed to vanish without a trace.

But he left lots of evidence behind inside the Gill residence. Claire knew something was up when she came home just before 6:30 Tuesday night.

She noticed candy wrappers on the couch, opened applesauce and spoons. She noticed a muffin was also missing.

"I just thought it was obviously very weird," she recalled with a smile.

She wondered if her kids had come to her house with the grandkids, but they hadn't been around.

"When nobody had been over here, I said, ‘We've got to start looking, somebody must have been in our house.'"

A quick search of the house uncovered the shock of their lives: The boy who had so many fearing the worst was asleep under a bed with a bottle of water and a gallon of Friendly's Pistachio ice cream.

The Gills knew immediately that he must have been that blond-haired, blue-eyed boy everyone was looking for who just so happens to live about 1,000 feet from their house. Sure enough, it was him.

"I was shocked, but we were both just thrilled that he was all right. He was a very sweet little boy," Claire said.

Devin came right out from under the bed after he was found. "He came over, we gave him a hug and we told him everything was fine," Jeff said. They then offered him a drink and carried him into the kitchen while Claire went outside to call Hampstead police.

The discovery came as a relief to the Gills, but his parents were most relieved when they learned that their son had been found safe and sound.

The Gills said Devin actually spent the night inside their house, but they had no clue.

No one knows yet how Devin got inside their house. Jeff said it's possible that he sneaked into the garage on Monday when the door was open and then stayed there until they left for work and then got into the house.

Devin was all smiles Tuesday night when his mom, Kerrilyn Frenette, carried him outside their home at 60 Catherine Ave. accompanied by his father, Mark. They were greeted by a round of applause from a crowd of searchers, neighbors, media, and others in the community who gathered to see that he was now home.

"We'd just like to thank everybody, all the searchers, all the work because you had long hours. I'd like to thank the community, too, for pulling together and helping us through this," Mark Frenette said.

"Welcome home, buddy," one woman yelled from the crowd.

Fish and Game Capt. John Wimsatt also thanked the more the 300 searchers who helped hunt for Devin.

"They are truly the ones that deserve the recognition for all of their efforts in swamps, woodlands, knocking door to door, canvasing neighborhoods, doing the reverse calling sequences to (keep) residents notified, and also the air support from the New Hampshire State Police helicopter," Wimsatt said.

The hunt for Devin began Monday afternoon when his family reported him missing.

The search intensified Tuesday morning as more search crews were called in, including police from several agencies, firefighters, Fish and Game officers, other local volunteers and members of the Southern New Hampshire Special Operations Unit.

Authorities said they thought Devin might have wandered off and became lost, as he has walked away from his house in the past and had to be found by police. However, officials said Devin has never been missing for such a long period of time.

A command post vehicle from the Rockingham County Sheriff's Department remained parked in the Frenettes' driveway all day Tuesday. Police and conservation officers occasionally examined the backyard and entered the home as many other teams of search crews fanned out across the area.

The disappearance rattled the nerves of many here, especially neighbors who have searched their own backyards and streets.

Devin, who was home-schooled, was often seen playing outside and helping around the yard.

Nadia Alawa, who lives on nearby Ellyson Avenue with her eight children, said Devin and his older sister often played with her children when he was younger.

"It is very unnerving. I hope that he will be found and that he just went outside and got lost. Anything worse than that will give me the creeps," she said before he was found.

When she heard that Devin had wandered away before, Alawa said she was hopeful that he just had an "adventurous streak and likes to explore" and that he would turn up soon.

And so he did.

The adventure is something his family will never forget, and neither will Jeff and Claire Gill.

"It's surreal," Claire said.