Autism Amber Alert: Autistic child who was the subject of a huge search in Spafford now wears a monitor

Autism Amber Alert: Autistic child who was the subject of a huge search in Spafford now wears a monitor | syracuse.com

AMBER Alerts are distributed via commercial radio stations, satellite radio, television stations, and cable TV by the Emergency Alert System and NOAA Weather Radio for child abductions only! Children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder are NOT included in the criteria for issuing an Amber Alert. This really needs to change.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Autistic child who was the subject of a huge search in Spafford now wears a monitor | syracuse.com

Mikey Gray, a 2-year-old with autism, walked out the door of his home dressed in lime-green pajamas Aug. 7 and disappeared into the woods of Spafford in the hills above Skaneateles Lake.

His mother, Kimberly Gray, remembers well the four hours of pain and terror she went through that day as 150 police officers and volunteers searched for the boy. It ended when a state trooper heard the boy’s cries and found him in the woods a quarter mile from the family’s Bacon Hill Road house.

Kimberly Gray was grabbing a shower around noon that day. Her husband, off-duty state Trooper John Gray, was helping their 13-year-old son set up his stereo. Then the 13-year-old said two words that set the family into pandemonium — “Where’s Mikey?”