Luck beat forethought in the case of a missing autistic 5-year-old who has been found four miles from his home in West Virginia. The boy, found in the woods by a neighbor two hours after his mother called the police, is part of Project Lifesaver, a program that helps police track adults and children who wander off due to Alzheimers, autism or other related disorders. Sadly, the boy wasn’t wearing his tracking bracelet. A local sheriff’s department sergeant stressed that tracking equipment must be maintained ceaselessly: battery checks every day, inspections for the transmitter and the bracelet, and ascertaining bracelet …read more

In Newark, Ohio, 9-year-old Dustin Blackburn, who is autistic, wandered into the woods beside his house on Wednesday afternoon and was found in the next hour. Today’s Advocate Reporter reports that Dustin was wearing a wristwatch-like Project Lifesaver device, a wristwatch-like band on his ankle. At 4.35pm, his mother, Beth Blackburn, called 911 within seven minutes of his disappearance. Licking County Sheriff’s Office deputies, as well as an Ohio Highway Patrol airplane and officers, arrived quickly on the scene and found Dustin at 5.25pm.
An agency in central Wisconsin is seeking to raise funds to expand Project Lifesaver in its …read more