Richie's Great Adventure
My son Richie went missing on Monday morning, and there was a massive search effort throughout the day and evening. We got a call at 11 this morning that they had found him.
Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, help, and rejoicing these past 36 hours. Autistic folk often don't anticipate how others might interpret their actions, and they are also not known to be meticulous planners. Rich is high-functioning (~Asbergers) and has a good heart. He decided it was time to strike off to college, so packed a bag and left the house before dawn, figuring he would call us when he got settled. He successfully navigated the Chicago commuter rail, then Amtrak, a taxi, and checked into a hotel on campus about 3.5h from Chicago. Thankfully the campus police noticed him and talked with him, eventually connecting with Naperville Police. We got the call at about 11am just as our other son Jonathan and I were about to head into the city to search, and as armies Argonne, Church, UChicago, and School of the Art Institute friends were organizing a systematic area-wide flier distribution and search.
We jumped in the car and 4 hours later were having pizza together. Richie is safe in his bed, we are all exhausted, but joyously thankful.
http://napervillesun.suntimes.com/10327598-418/missing-naperville-man-is-found-ok.html
