Autistic Boy Leaves His Family’s Hotel Room In The Night And Is Found Dead Days Later In A River
Hammond, Indiana. Just outside of Chicago, 12-year-old Kyrin Carter and his dad Less were vacationing at a Best Western hotel.
Kyrin was autistic and from Kansas City, Missouri, and had traveled with his dad to the hotel so they could spend some time with their family in the area.
Although Kyrin was diagnosed with autism and was nonverbal, his family said he was very high functioning.
On May 15th, Kyrin left his hotel room in the middle of the night and completely vanished. It was around 12:30 p.m. that Kyrin disappeared.
Hammond Police Department; pictured above is Kyrin Carter
“The family, friends, and countless volunteers have searched each and every single day, all day and night,” Kyrin’s family wrote on a GoFundMe page.
“We’re raising money hoping that people will start talking. His dad will not leave that hotel until he’s found. We ask that if you know something PLEASE SAY SOMETHING!!!!”
“He’s loved and tremendously missed. Please help us bring him home. If all you have is prayers that will suffice. All money donated will go to his dad. ”
The Hammond Police Department helped look for Kyrin and uncovered some things on local surveillance cameras in the area.
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Local surveillance cameras picked up Kyrin running to the Little Calumet River, so authorities and volunteers centered their search around that.
More video footage was found showing that Kyrin was very close to the edge of the river at one point.
This river is extraordinarily cold, slippery, and dark, so it was very hard for everyone to search the actual river.
Nine days after Kyrin went missing, he was sadly found dead in the river by one of the men who had volunteered to look for him.
“On Friday, May 21st, in coordination with the Hammond City Engineer, the Indiana Dept. of Transportation, Hasse Construction, and the Little Calumet River Basin Commissioner, the decision was made to temporarily stop the flow of water into the Little Calumet River in an attempt to get as deep into the river as possible to search for Kyrin Carter,” the Hammond Police Department explained in a statement.
“On May 24th, at approximately 8:15 p.m., a local volunteer kayaker notified police that he located what he believed to be a body in the Little Calumet River.”
“Officers arrived and located what appeared to a body located approximately 100 yards west of the Best Western. The body was retrieved and positively identified as 12-year-old Kyrin Carter.”
Hammond Police Department; pictured above is a statement regarding Kyrin
Authorities have said they do not suspect any foul play in Kyrin’s death and they do think this was a terrible accident.
Kyrin’s official cause of death has not yet been released as the autopsy is still underway.
In light of Kyrin’s tragic passing, an online petition has started calling for hotels to provide their guests with portal alarms or locks to prevent something like this from happening again.
“As an autistic parent, I have had to travel with portable door alarms and locks,” Joanna Marie wrote on the petition.
“I’ve had to move and arrange hotel room furniture to block access to a door. The sliding lock on the door is not enough.”
“If a hotel can offer as a courtesy to guests a loaner extra door alarm, or portable lock just as they provide extra rollaway beds or portable cribs it can mean the difference in alerting someone if a door is opened when it should not be.”
If you want to donate to the GoFundMe page created for Kyrin and his family you can do so here.
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