5-Year-Old Boy with Autism Found Dead in Pond Hours After He Vanished from Family Home

The boy went missing from his home in Florida the morning of Friday, Aug. 7

NEED TO KNOW

• A 5-year-old boy with autism was reported missing on Friday, Aug. 7, after disappearing from his family’s Florida apartment
• He was later found dead in a retention pond near the property
• Officials noted this is the second drowning of a child with autism near the complex in under two months

A missing child with autism has been found dead in a retention pond near his family’s Florida home.

The 5-year-old nonverbal boy was last seen by his father after falling asleep at their home in the area of Cypress Mulch Circle and Northgreen Avenue at around 5 a.m. local time on Friday, Aug. 7, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO).

“We received [a 911 call] around 9:30 a.m. from a frantic father who said that his child has gone missing,” HCSO Sheriff Chad Chronister said at a press conference. “..He told us that he last saw his child around 5:00 a.m.. The child sleeps with him, and he was trying to get his son to drink something … and they both fell back asleep. He woke up at 9 a.m., saw that his son wasn’t in bed with them [or inside] the apartment.”

Chronister said the boy’s father discovered that the “screened-in area” outside the home “had been broken and pushed open” before he called the police.

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The HCSO said that more than 140 deputy sheriffs searched for the boy with assistance from the HCSO’s aviation unit, drone deputies, a canine unit, and a dive team. They eventually located the child’s body at a pond near the family’s home.

“The [canine team] dog continued to go around this retention pond that’s about 30 feet located behind the apartment, so at that point … the dive team started there,” said Chronister. “The dive team member entered the water into about five feet, waist-high water … and we ended up recovering a deceased five-year-old child.”

In HCSO’s initial missing report of the boy shared on Facebook, he was described as approximately 3 feet 11 inches tall with brown hair and “last seen wearing a beige Spider-Man shirt, a diaper, and no pants.”

Chronister said this is the second autistic child to drown near the apartment complex in less than two months. He urged parents to ensure their children take swimming lessons to avoid a similar tragedy.

“Regardless of the age of your child, regardless of their circumstances — if they have special needs, it doesn’t matter — get them swimming lessons,” he said. “We know scientifically proven that autistic children are prone and attracted to bodies of water.”

Chronister added, “I am incredibly proud of how quickly our agency responded, but my heart breaks that the outcome wasn’t what we all prayed for.”

PEOPLE has reached out to HCSO for further comment.