Autistic Roseville teen located with help of Project Lifesaver

13-year old wandered from west Roseville home

Roseville, Calif.- Roseville Police officers quickly located a missing autistic boy on June 29, with help from the boy’s Project Lifesaver transmitter bracelet.

At 6:30 p.m. on Friday, June 29, the parents of a 13-year-old autistic boy notified police that the boy had wandered away from their west Roseville home. On at least three other occasions over the past year, the boy has wandered miles from his home and concealed himself from police officers and other searchers. Previous police searches for the boy have ranged over open space and wetland areas, and have lasted as long as two hours.

The boy now wears a Project Lifesaver transmitter bracelet, provided by the Roseville Police Department. Officers are able to search for him using Project Lifesaver receivers that are tuned to the bracelet’s transmitter frequency.

After the boy was reported missing on June 29, an officer used a Project Lifesaver receiver to search for the boy. After about 20 minutes of following the signal, the officer was puzzled when the trail ended at a concrete sound wall. Then the officer then got on top of the wall, looked down, and spotted the boy concealed in a narrow space between the concrete sound wall and a wooden fence.  The boy was safely returned to his parents.

Project Lifesaver is a free service of the Roseville Police Department for Roseville residents who have dementia, autism, or other mental or developmental conditions that cause them to wander away from caretakers. Project Lifesaver was made possible because of generous grants from the Sutter Hospital Foundation, the Roseville Citizen’s Benefit Fund, and other generous donors.

For more information about Project Lifesaver, Roseville residents can call (916) 746-1077.

related

• H.E.L.P. and Project Lifesaver in Folsom assists vulnerable residents