Melbourne: A 17-year-old boy with autism was found alive Thursday after six days lost in eastern Australian woodlands.
The boy, whom police identified only as William, had begun camping with a teenage friend when he disappeared last Friday near Walhalla, a former gold-mining town 185 kilometers east of Melbourne, police said.
A police helicopter crew found him surrounded by wilderness lying asleep on a flat rock beside a creek, and he was later reunited with his mother. William was in good spirits and mostly in good health, the police statement said.
Video shot from the rescue helicopter showed he was shirtless and sunburned. He was wearing shorts and boots and was using towels as blankets.
“I’m just over the moon that he’s alive,” his mother, Elizabeth, told reporters. The AP has decided not to provide her family name to avoid identifying her son.
“And he’s never leaving the house again. He’s grounded for life. He’s not going anywhere ever again,” she joked.
William was later taken to a hospital for his health to be monitored, police said.
William’s family have said he has Level 2 autism. That requires “substantial support,” according to the Australian advocacy group Autism360.
Such a person may have marked deficits in verbal and non-verbal social communication and rely heavily on routines and predictable activities.
