Missing autistic teenager from Peterborough area found safe

Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say a missing and vulnerable autistic teenager has been found safe.

The 18-year-old left his Peterborough area home through a window on the night of Oct. 13.

“As a result of the ongoing search efforts, on October 30, 2024, at approximately 8:45 a.m., the missing person was located safe by officers in an abandoned building that had been searched regularly, as it was identified as one of his regular hideouts,” police said in a statement, adding he had been transported to hospital as a precaution.

For more than two weeks, the teen’s mother claimed the police search for her autistic son had lacked urgency.

“He’s high-functioning autistic. He’s also got ADHD, social anxiety disorder, and intellectual disorder,” said Jenny Tozer.

Tozer said she informed police officers of her son’s condition, and it appeared to have landed on deaf ears. She believes it’s partly due to his age as an 18-year-old.

“But mentally, he’s 12 to 14.”

Tozer noted that this wasn’t the first time her son had gone missing, even if it was for “a short amount of time.” She says she and her husband reported him missing the evening of Monday, Oct. 14, and police came to search their large property the next day.

“They [used] drones, and they [had] people walking the property, [that] kind of thing, but they didn’t find anything,” she said.

Ontario Autism Coalition critical of police response

A representative with the Ontario Autism Coalition believes authorities should have taken the family’s concern for their missing son more seriously.

“You’re talking about somebody who doesn’t really have a lot of the social skills to ask for help,” said Kate Dudley-Logue, VP of Community Outreach with the Ontario Autism Coalition. “And that’s what makes it really alarming. That’s why we would have liked to have seen more urgency from the authorities.”

In response to these claims, Central Region OPP told CityNews that officials shared a missing person poster on social media on Oct. 15, issued a media release on Oct. 17, and utilized online platforms to appeal to the public.