A five-year-old autistic boy has been found dead in a sewage tank in Brazil after telling his mother he was going to the toilet. João Gabriel Ferreira dos Santos, who was non-verbal and required level-two support for autism spectrum disorder, went missing on Sunday morning from his family home in Araucária, Paraná state.
The Search
His parents searched for an hour before raising the alarm. Hundreds of people joined the effort, using dogs, drones, a helicopter and volunteers. Search parties covered three square kilometres of dense woodland, ponds and farmland.
The boy's body was found after three days in a two-metre-deep pool of water that had collected on the torn cover of a bio-digestor about 70 metres from the family home. The structure is used to break down pig waste and other organic matter at the farm where his parents worked as caretakers.
Discovery and Investigation
Firefighters drained the water yesterday afternoon and located the body. The tarp, which should have stayed inflated by gases, had a tear allowing the deadly pool to form. The area was fenced but had a gap the little boy could have slipped through.
Fire department spokesperson Eduardo Hunzicker said: “It was a location we had already mapped. The tarp was punctured and underneath were animal faeces. The water was completely contaminated, making diving impossible. We asked the property owner to empty the water and the boy was located during that work.”
Governor Ratinho Junior expressed deep sadness and offered condolences to the family. Civil police and forensic teams have opened an investigation. Officers say there are no signs of crime so far and are treating the death as a probable accident.
