After about three months, an intensive search for a missing autistic teen may have come to a grim end.
Avonte Oquendo, a fourteen years old and non-verbal boy who was suffering from severe autism, was last seen on October 4 leaving the grounds of his school, Riverview School on 51st Avenue in Long Island City, Queens, in the middle of the day and heading towards a part overlooking the East River. He was not seen since.
Last Thursday, authorities retrieved from the shores of the East River, in College Point near Powell's Cove what are suspected to be his remains. They were led there by a 19 year-old student of photography who was in the area taking pictures at around 7:30 on Thursday night and saw what looked like partial remains of a person. She immediately reported to the police what she saw.
After Oquendo's parents reported him missing in October 4, posters of Avonte were plastered throughout the city bearing his photograph, a description of him -- 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighs 125 pounds, and last seen wearing a striped shirt, black jeans and black sneakers. A massive search was launched, which included, hundreds of officers, marine units and volunteers. An online site was also launched to issue statements and shout-outs for help, and to receive tips on the possible whereabouts of the missing teen, and it redirects to a Facebook page. A command center for everything related to Oquendo's search was also set up at 21-81A 24th Street, Astoria, Ny. 11105.
The authorities were flooded with hundreds of tips, and most of those tips were hunted down. All possible leads were exhausted, including weeks of announcements at the Metropolitan Transport Authority and police checking all subway stations and tunnels, as Avonte was known to be fascinated with trains. At one point the authorities even consulted psychics in an attempt to find leads as to his whereabouts.
An effort to raise funds for a reward offer was also launched. An anonymous donation of $50,000 was made to the advocacy group Autism Speaks. Just two weeks after Oquendo had gone missing, the National Action Network, headed by Reverend Al Sharpton, donated $5,000 towards the reward for finding him. Rev. Sharpton's donation brought to $89,500 the total reward for Oquendo's safe return.
As early as five days after Oquendo's disappearance, the Oquendo's family attorney, David Perecman, filed a $25 million notice of claim against the city on behalf of Avonte's family. In November 4, a month after the disappearance, Sen. Chuck Schumer floated a proposal to place tracking devices on autistic kids. "The sights and sounds of NYC and other busy places can be over-stimulating and distracting for children and teens with autism, often leading to wandering as a way to escape," said Schumer "Voluntary tracking devices will help our teachers and parents in the event that the child runs away and, God forbid, goes missing."
At one point in October, Oquendo's mother, Vanessa Fontaine, railed against NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly for saying that he is not hopeful that the teen will still be found alive.
Towards the end of the year, Perecman was able to obtain an occurrence report from the Department of Education, which detailed the timeline of Oquendo's disappearance from Center Boulevard School. Details in this report were compiled from the initial investigation.
According to the occurrence report, Oquendo was with his class on the way to the computer lab. The class was being watched by three adults. Oquendo apparently slipped away from the group, and security cameras captured him walking to the first floor at 12:37 p.m. He approached the main security desk twice and left the building through the open door that led to the Center Boulevard.
Less than five minutes later, a school safety agent closed the door shut. At around the same time, Oquendo's teachers noticed he was missing. After fifteen minutes, they notified the assistant principal, who then asked the safety agent to search the outside perimeter of the school. The safety agent found nothing, and even mentioned that she saw Oquendo "run up the stairs." It was only at 2 p.m. that a full lockdown was ordered, which was a full hour and a half after Avonte was last seen with his classmates.
Oquendo's mother Vanessa blamed the school's safety agent, saying that if she "would have just got up and went outside and ran after him instead of closing the door and acting like nothing happened, my son would be here with me, not lost out in the street somewhere," Vanessa said.
Police pieced the rest of the story together. They believe that Oquendo walked into a nearby hilly area along Newtown Creek, and possibly lost his way among the brush. Because the area has a sudden drop measuring about 25-30 feet, it's easy to fall into the East River that was directly below.
The remains discovered have been taken to the Queens County Morgue. The Medical Examiner's Office will determine the cause of death, although police said that this may take several days. Results of a DNA comparison, with sample from the found remains and a specimen taken from Vanessa, may finally bring to an end the massive investigation launched to find Oquendo.
