“Our hearts go out to the family,” Montgomery County police spokeswoman Sheila Goff said Sunday evening after police searched the scene for 26 hours. “We all hoped for a different outcome.”
Lt. Christina Hedgepeth said caring for a child is always difficult, but it’s even more difficult when the child has special needs.
“It’s a tough thing to say to someone in this situation,” Hedgepeth said, “but I know as a parent myself that you have to be constantly vigilant. You have to be constantly watching. And when you have a child with special needs, it’s even tougher.”
More than 100 police officers, firefighters and volunteers have been searching in and around Bohler Park in Gaithersburg for more than a day, officials said at a news conference early Sunday sounding confident.
“We are committed to locating Fauzan and getting him to safety,” Montgomery County Police Deputy Chief Nicholas Augustine said Sunday, asking for the public’s help as the search expands beyond the park.
“He was hunkered down and maybe just scared,” said Montgomery County Police Officer Laurie Reyes, who specializes in working with families of autistic children and helping them search for missing children.
Fauzan, who weighed 42 pounds, was wearing a green shirt, blue jeans and white and silver sneakers when he was last seen.
Bohler Park is bounded by neighborhoods on the southwest and southeast sides, Frederick Avenue on the northeast side, and Gaithersburg High School on the northwest side.
Police urged area residents to thoroughly search their properties, including under porches and decks, and inside unlocked cars and sheds.
Officers warned people not to approach the boy as he may run away, and to call 911 instead.
People with autism who go missing are often drawn to areas near water, Reyes said, and Montgomery County Fire and Rescue searched area ponds Saturday and Sunday, department spokesman Pete Pillinger said.
Officers from Montgomery County Police, Gaithersburg Police, Maryland State Police and Maryland National Capital Park Police assisted in the search, and a drone equipped with infrared sensing technology flew over the area overnight, officials said.
Police asked residents to print out flyers from the department’s social media pages and post them in the Gaithersburg area, and drivers in the area were asked to call police if they saw a young child sitting alone at a bus stop.
Montgomery Police offer this advice when approaching a non-verbal child with autism:
It’s important to approach calmly and slowly. Avoid startling them with sudden movements or loud noises. Even if your child doesn’t respond verbally, speak to them in a gentle, reassuring tone. Non-verbal children with autism may not respond to their name, so try to use other cues, such as visual cues or familiar objects, to get their attention.
Police said the most important thing was to ensure the child’s safety and wait for police to arrive.
The Montgomery Police Department’s Autism/Intellectual Developmental Disability (IDD), Alzheimer’s and Dementia Support Unit offers tips to help keep vulnerable people from wandering.
