A missing 5-year-old child with autism who left his family’s home in Central Florida was found and rescued by a deputy who spotted him in a pond.
Deputies recently responded to a report of a missing child around 7:30pm at a home on Valmont Lane in Deltona in Volusia County.
The boy’s father told deputies his 5-year-old son escaped the house through a second-story door, which set off an alarm. The family immediately began looking, asked neighbors for help, and called 911.
Deputies searched the house and the immediate area with no luck. But knowing that the 5-year-old had autism and was attracted to water, deputies began checking bodies of water near the neighborhood.
According to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office, Deputy Brough and others headed for a pond a few blocks away behind Toluca Court.
Around 7:48pm, Deputy Brough heard a voice and spotted the boy out in the water, hanging onto a log. Deputy Brough jumped into the pond and carried the boy to dry land, where he was medically cleared and returned to his family.
It was confirmed the family had taken several measures to secure the house, including the alarm on the door that immediately alerted them the boy had gone missing.
Like all VSO deputies, Deputy Brough has received Autism Awareness Training to help prepare for a wide variety of calls involving people with autism, including missing children.
