AVONTE OQUENDO - 14 yo - Autistic - Queens, NY

Search for autistic teen focuses on railroad yard, source says

By Brian Vitagliano, Allie Malloy and Rande Iaboni , CNN
updated 10:20 PM EDT, Fri October 18, 2013

(CNN) -- The search for Avonte Oquendo, a 14-year-old autistic boy who ran out of his school two weeks ago, focused Friday on the Sunnyside East Rail Yard, a large railroad yard for passenger cars, in Long Island City, Queens, according to a source close to the investigation.

The teenager is fascinated by trains, his family has said.

The source also gave CNN new details about the widespread search for Avonte, who was last seen on surveillance video running out of Center Boulevard School in Long Island City on the afternoon of October 4. Three hours after Avonte went missing, bloodhounds traced his scent to a marshy area near his school, but then lost the trail near the water, the source said.

One hour after that, the bloodhounds picked up Avonte's scent again, this time at a subway station nearby, the source said.


Teen with autism goes missing

Searches of train stations, tracks and tunnels are being conducted at the start of every shift by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said, adding that 50 NYPD officers and a task force of detectives are working the case.

Transportation officials in New York suspended overnight track maintenance on the city's transit system last weekend as workers combed the underground network. All 468 New York City subway stations have been searched, and aviation, harbor and canine officers are mobilized and deployed periodically, the NYPD said.

The previous notion that Avonte did not like water may not be correct, according to the source, who said Avonte apparently recently attended a class trip on a Circle Line Sightseeing cruise and was fascinated by the water. The NYPD had six divers in nearby water on Thursday using sonar, the source said.

For the first time in the extensive search, police have brought in the assistance of cadaver dogs, the source said.

The clothing company Old Navy also is now working with the NYPD and a federal agency, providing them with a shirt matching the one Avonte was wearing at the time of his disappearance. The source said officials will put that shirt into their database to scan video cameras for recognition, similar to facial recognition.

The Department of Environmental Protection brought in special cameras extended on poles to search the sewer system in and around the area Avonte went missing, the source said.

NYPD is also working in conjunction with the food delivery company Fresh Direct to examine its trucks. The source said there is a truck depot nearby and Avonte possibly could have gone into a truck without a driver knowing and left the area.

New York police patrol cars and search vehicles have been playing a recording of Avonte's mother calling for him into the streets, Keith Brooks, director of operations for CityWide Disaster Service, said Thursday.

"Avonte, this is your mother. You are safe. Walk toward the lights," the message repeats.

The hope is the teen, who is unable to communicate verbally, will hear the sound of his mother's voice and approach the emergency vehicles.

The extended efforts of the NYPD have led to increased awareness among New York residents, with posters and fliers filling the streets, subway alerts and city papers all spreading the same message: Have you seen Avonte Oquendo?

"I heard the day he first went missing on the news," said Alex Toroslar, a student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "Since then I've seen posters at Port Authority and heard announcements there."

Another New Yorker, Rachel Gilbert, said she has seen pleas to help Avonte in newspapers and on the subway.

"I was quite surprised by the individual announcement," Gilbert said, noting that she couldn't remember ever hearing a similar announcement for a missing child.

"I think the NYPD will eventually find him," Toroslar said. "It's just a matter of time because everyone in the city is aware of it."
Retta (who wished to not be identified by her last name) agreed with Toroslar but was unsure if the same intense search technique should be used in the future.

"I wonder if it were more frequent we would become more immune to it," Retta said, suggesting that New Yorkers are aware of Avonte because the search efforts have been so publicized.

The reward for the safe return of Avonte grew this week to $77,500, as divers joined an ever growing number of police and rescue officers from several states who have been searching for him nonstop for more than a week.

Avonte's mother, Vanessa Fontaine, told CNN's "Piers Morgan Live" on Thursday that she believes her son is still alive and that someone is probably holding him.

"My message to my son is that I love him and we're going to find him. You'll come home to your family. And for anyone who has him, please be kind and to let him go," she said.

Kelly said he is not holding the school safety officer who was on duty when the teen ran out of the Queens high school responsible for the boy's disappearance.

When Avonte approached the front door of his school the day he disappeared, the safety agent told him to go back upstairs, Kelly said at a news conference on Wednesday. Surveillance video then showed Avonte turning and going down another hallway, and exiting the building from a side door, he said.

Surveillance video provided by the police department shows that no supervisor or monitor stopped the 14-year-old when he ran out.

"Even though he's 14, it shouldn't matter. No one should be, you know, allowed to run around the hallways in school. And that security guard should have questioned him," Fontaine said.

David Perecman, the Oquendo family's attorney, said it took school officials at least 45 minutes to call police after Avonte left.

"I don't understand how this happens to a special needs child unless there is something in there that failed the family," he told "Piers Morgan Live" on Thursday.

The New York City Department of Education issued a statement saying it is working closely with police. The school is not commenting.

The Oquendo family filed a "notice of claim" on October 9, said Perecman, marking the first step of a lawsuit against the city of New York. He declined to give further information about the claim.

Police said Avonte was last seen wearing a gray striped shirt, black jeans and black sneakers. He is 5 feet, 3 inches tall and weighs 125 pounds.

Anyone with information about Avonte is asked to contact the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS. The public can also submit tips at the Crime Stoppers website,nypdcrimestoppers.com or can text to 274637 (CRIMES), then enter TIP577.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/18/us/new-york-missing-autistic-teen/

Photo resembling Avonte Oquendo is not the missing teen, cops say


A picture of boy bearing a striking resemblance to the missing autistic teenager emerged Wednesday but police said Thursday morning that the person pictured riding the subway is not Avonte.

 NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Wednesday, October 30, 2013, 11:00 PM
Updated: Thursday, October 31, 2013, 12:43 PM



A teenager snapped this picture of a boy resembling missing Avonte Oquendo on an E or F subway train Tuesday afternoon. Police confirmed Thursday the individual is not Avonte.

A picture of a boy riding the subway that closely resembled Avonte Oquendo is not the missing teen, police said Thursday.
The photo emerged Wednesday and even Avonte's father said there was a "close likeness."
But police located the individual who was photographed and determined it is not Avonte, who has been missing since he walked out of his Queens high school on Oct. 4.

“It was not Avonte. This person whose photo it was was in the precinct with his parents," a police spokeswoman told the Daily News.

RELATED: AUTISTIC AVONTE OQUENDO, 14, NOW MISSING 23 DAYS, SEARCH CONTINUES

"He was taken to a precinct, he was with his mother and it’s confirmed he was not Avonte.”


Avonte, who has autism and is nonverbal, has been missing since Oct. 4.

The hope that Avonte had been found was renewed after a 13-year-old straphanger thought a boy riding an E or F line train Tuesday afternoon just might be the 14-year-old autistic boy who is nonverbal and has been missing nearly a month.

The youngster approached the look-a-like, asking, “Hey, are you Avonte?” according to Tony Herbert, president of the Brooklyn East chapter of the National Action Network.

The boy didn’t answer, Herbert said, and the inquiring youth — whose identity was unknown — snapped a picture before he got off the train.

RELATED: AVONTE OQUENDO'S MOM RAILS AT RAY KELLY

He later posted the photo of a boy staring straight ahead and wearing a beige jacket and green khaki pants on his Facebook page, sources said. An administrator from the good Samaritan’s school saw the image and alerted police.

Since Avonte vanished leaving his Long Island City school, authorities have been frantically scouring the city’s subway tunnels in hopes of finding him. Cops have received and investigated sporadic reports of possible sightings, as recently as Wednesday, all to no avail.


The 14-year-old walked out Center Boulevard School in Long Island City, Queens.

Around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, residents near the Woodhaven-Ozone Park border in Queens said NYPD cops from the 102 Precinct swarmed the area, and helicopters hovered above a Burger King on Atlantic Ave.

“We saw cops coming up by twos, going into every house on 92nd St. looking for security cameras,” said one resident, who declined to give her name.

RELATED: COMMISSIONER KELLY FEARS THAT MISSING TEENAGER AVONTE OQUENDO IS DEAD

The person who sparked that massive search was not Avonte.

Tuesday’s subway photo emerged days after Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said he’s “not hopeful” that the autistic boy is still alive. He later apologized to Avonte’s enraged kin.

Family members were hesitant to affirm that the recently released image was, or wasn’t, Avonte, who has a fascination with trains.


He is described as being 5'3" tall and weighing 120 lbs. When he was last seen, he was wearing a gray striped shirt, black jeans and black sneakers.

After he was shown the photo, Avonte’s father, Daniel Oquendo, said he was “still hopeful.”

RELATED: REV. AL’S PLEDGE MAKES IT $89.5G FOR MISSING TEEN

He believes one of the possible sightings eventually will bear fruit.

“We just need to stay focused and analyze every sighting,” he said. “The more sightings, the better. Eventually one will pan out.

“We’re still hopeful,” he said.

A reward for finding Avonte is now up to $85,000, CBS reported.

Meanwhile, another autistic boy, Robert Richard, 14, went missing from Yonkers and may have wandered somewhere in the Bronx,

authorities said Wednesday night. Anyone with information on either boy is asked to call 911.


http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/avonte-oquendo-resembles-subway-rider-photo-father-article-1.1502230

NY River Remains Could Be Missing Autistic Teen


NEW YORK January 17, 2014 (AP)
By COLLEEN LONG Associated Press



ABCNews.com
Next Video Subway Photo Not That of Missing Autistic Teenager
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Police were investigating whether human remains found along the East River could be those of an autistic teen who walked out of his school more than three months ago and vanished, law enforcement officials said Friday.

A 14-year-old girl shooting photos at a park discovered a left arm on Thursday, said an official with direct knowledge of the case. A second official said the girl posted a photo of an arm on Twitter and later told her mother about the discovery, who called police.
Neither official was authorized divulge investigative details and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The arm was discovered on the shore. Police also found the lower part of a torso and legs on the rocks at low tide, along with black Air Jordan sneakers, white socks and tattered denim jeans that resembled what 14-year-old Avonte Oquendo was wearing when he disappeared, the officials said. The rest of the remains have not been recovered.

At daybreak Friday, police in waders searched the water while a dog sniffed the marshy terrain along the shore. Police divers also went into the water.

Avonte has been missing since Oct. 4, when he walked out of his school toward a park overlooking the East River. His disappearance sparked a search that included hundreds of officers, marine units and volunteers.

Missing person posters were plastered on lampposts and placed on car windshields throughout the city. The teen, who did not speak, was fascinated with the subway system and Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials made announcements on trains for weeks asking for help finding him. Police checked every subway station and tunnel.

Authorities also hunted down hundreds of tips in New York City and its suburbs. Despite a few false alarms, including an image of a person snapped on a train that resembled the boy, he has not been located.

Detectives were not sure whether the remains found Thursday belonged to the missing teen. The body parts were found at least 11 miles from where he was last seen, considerably upriver and east of the park near Avonte's school.

One investigative theory was that Avonte might have fallen into the river near the school. Although the remains were found upriver, past densely-populated shoreline and the Rikers Island jail, the East River is a tidal strait with strong currents that reverse flow many times a day.

The family's lawyer, David Perecman, said Avonte's mother, Vanessa Fontaine, still holds out hope that her son is alive.

"Her initial reaction was, 'until I hear more or see more,' Perecman told reporters gathered at the waterfront area where police were searching. "She's not going to be convinced it's her son unless there's enough to convince her."

Perecman said the family will wait for DNA test results. He confirmed that that the jeans and size 5 1/2 sneakers found on the remains resembled what Avonte was wearing but said the remains were badly decomposed.

Perecman said Avonte feared the water and his family can't imagine him voluntarily entering it.

The remains were taken to a morgue, where the medical examiner's office will try to identify them and determine a cause of death, which may take several days, police said.

A reward fund for information leading to Avonte's safe return was at least $60,000, including $50,000 from an anonymous donation to the advocacy group Autism Speaks.

Avonte's family has filed a notice of claim saying they planned to sue the city, arguing that school officials allowed him to walk out of the building and waited too long to notify police that he was missing.

Former police commissioner Raymond Kelly had defended the school safety officer who last saw the boy, saying she told him to go back to his classroom and he left the hallway. The city's law department has said the case is "distressing."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ny-remains-missing-autistic-teen-21569362

Body Parts Found in East River Matched to Missing Teen Avonte Oquendo


Body parts found along the shore of the East River in Queens have been matched by DNA to Avonte Oquendo, the teen who went missing more than three months ago, according to the city's chief medical examiner.

The body parts were found Thursday night in College Point, just southwest of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, about 9 miles by waterway from where Avonte was last seen on Oct. 4.

The disappearance of the autistic and mute teen launched a search that spanned the city and extended even into the suburbs for weeks. He walked out of his school in Long Island City, near the East River, and was never seen again.

Authorities said a human arm was found by a resident Thursday night, and then more body parts by officers who responded.

Searchers also located a pair of size 5 1/2 Air Jordan sneakers and a pair of jeans matching what Avonte was wearing the day he disappeared. A pair of underwear that was found did not match the size or brand he was wearing, sources said.
The flow of the East River, which is actually a tidal strait and not a river, changes direction with the tide, so it could have flowed from nearby Avonte's school to the place where the parts were found.

Family lawyer Daniel Perecman said the child was last seen on surveillance video in a park right along the water. But, he said, the teen is afraid of water and "doesn't like it." The family doesn't believe he would have voluntarily crossed a shoreline barrier.

Perecman has a press conference scheduled for later today.  

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Body-Parts-Found-in-East-River-Matched-to-Missing-Teen-Avonte-Oquendo-241322861.html

I was hoping for the best but this does not look good.  Generally you don't get body parts just drifting in a river.  Some boat damage maybe but not parts.  This will likely be moved to murdered.    William