LITTLE RIVER, S.C., Dec. 26 (UPI) -- An autistic boy who wandered off on Christmas Eve was found floating Friday in a pond about 100 yards from his grandmother's home in South Carolina.
Jayden Morrison was reported missing late Wednesday afternoon in Little River, S.C. His body was found in a retention pond.
The boy, his mother, Tabitha Morrison, and his brothers had traveled from White Plains, N.Y., to stay with his grandmother, Carolyn Sumpter. Sumpter was looking after the children while his mother did some last-minute shopping when she noticed Jayden was missing and the front door open.
"We're just distraught," Sumpter told the New York Daily News on Friday. "We lost our baby."
Horry County Police Lt. Raul Denis told reporters the boy apparently drowned. Horry County Coroner Robert Edge confirmed that after an autopsy.
The search involved Horry County police and firefighters and scores of volunteers. Brunswick County contributed a helicopter.
Because Jayden could not talk, loudspeakers sent children's music floating across the neighborhood to atttract him. In the end, Jayden was found about 10 doors down from where he had vanished and Edge said he drowned soon after he disappeared.
Andre Morrison, who traveled from White Plains to help in the search, said that at home Jayden was always kept in an "enclosed" situation.
"We never put him in a position to go out and freely wander," he said.
