A 7-year-old Pearland girl with autism was found dead in a neighborhood retention pond Wednesday after an Amber Alert and an hours-long search involving police, volunteers and dive teams. Authorities deployed K-9 units, drones and the Houston Police dive team. The loss has neighbors and advocates urgently renewing calls for tougher barriers around open water and more detailed safety plans for children on the autism spectrum who are prone to wandering.
What police say
Pearland police identified the child as 7-year-old Skylar Hopson and said she walked away from her home in the Shadow Creek Ranch area Wednesday morning. Officers followed K-9 tracks and signals from her electronic tablet to a nearby retention pond, where a Houston dive team recovered…..