Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say a lacking and weak autistic teenager has been discovered secure.
The 18-year-old left his Peterborough space residence by way of a window on the night time of Oct. 13.
“As a result of the ongoing search efforts, on October 30, 2024, at approximately 8:45 a.m., the missing person was located safe by officers in an abandoned building that had been searched regularly, as it was identified as one of his regular hideouts,” police stated in an announcement, including he had been transported to hospital as a precaution.
For greater than two weeks, the teenager’s mom claimed the police seek for her autistic son had lacked urgency.
“He’s high-functioning autistic. He’s also got ADHD, social anxiety disorder, and intellectual disorder,” stated Jenny Tozer.
Tozer stated she knowledgeable law enforcement officials of her son’s situation, and it appeared to have landed on deaf ears. She believes it’s partly as a consequence of his age as an 18-year-old.
“But mentally, he’s 12 to 14.”
Tozer famous that this wasn’t the primary time her son had gone lacking, even when it was for “a short amount of time.” She says she and her husband reported him lacking the night of Monday, Oct. 14, and police got here to go looking their giant property the following day.
“They [used] drones, and they [had] people walking the property, [that] kind of thing, but they didn’t find anything,” she stated.
Ontario Autism Coalition vital of police response
A consultant with the Ontario Autism Coalition believes authorities ought to have taken the household’s concern for his or her lacking son extra critically.
“You’re talking about somebody who doesn’t really have a lot of the social skills to ask for help,” stated Kate Dudley-Logue, VP of Neighborhood Outreach with the Ontario Autism Coalition. “And that’s what makes it really alarming. That’s why we would have liked to have seen more urgency from the authorities.”
In response to those claims, Central Area OPP advised CityNews that officers shared a lacking particular person poster on social media on Oct. 15, issued a media launch on Oct. 17, and utilized on-line platforms to attraction to the general public.
