A 17-year-old boy with autism was found alive Thursday after six days lost in eastern Australian woodlands.
A police helicopter crew found him surrounded by wilderness lying asleep in a dry creek bed, and he was later reunited with his mother. Elizabeth had dropped off her son and his friend last Friday for a weekend of camping. The extensive police search for him involved emergency services and volunteers.
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 (115 miles) east of Melbourne, police said.
William was in good spirits and mostly in good health, the police statement said. William was later taken to a hospital for his health to be monitored, police said. William walked a short distance from the campsite to the drop-off location to collect more camping equipment but never returned to his friend, police said.
The AP has decided not to provide her family name to avoid identifying her son. William’s family have said he has Level 2 autism.
“I’m just over the moon that he’s alive,” his mother, Elizabeth, told reporters. That requires “substantial support,” according to the Australian advocacy group Autism360.
