HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WWSB) – The body of a missing 5-year-old autistic boy was recovered Friday from a retention pond behind his apartment in the Northdale area, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said.
The child’s father called 911 around 9:30 a.m. after waking up and finding his son missing from the bed they shared. The father told deputies he last saw the child around 5 a.m. when he tried to get the boy to drink something. Both fell back asleep, and when the father woke at 9 a.m., the child was gone.
The father searched the apartment, then went outside and found that the screen on a screened-in patio area had been broken and pushed open. He called the child’s grandmother — who lives with them and works as an elementary school teacher — to see if the boy was with her. He was not. The father called 911 approximately 30 minutes after waking…