Autistic Children Are A Lot More Likely To Run Off Or 'Elope' – Here's Why

The recent disappearance of Noah Woods sparked conversation about elopement and why autistic children may be drawn to water.

Parents editor at HuffPost UK

You probably saw the heartbreaking news this week that the body of a child was recovered from a pond in Suffolk, not far from where a three-year-old boy went missing after running away from a playground.

Noah Woods, described in news reports as partially deaf, non-verbal and awaiting an autism assessment, was last seen at a playground in the village of Brantham on Tuesday.

He ran away from a relative as they left the playground, heading down an alleyway towards a new-build housing estate, before ultimately becoming lost.

After a huge search effort on Wednesday – which saw over one thousand people travel from as far as Birmingham to try and track down the young boy – police revealed the heartbreaking news that a child’s body had been found in a nearby pond.

As of Wednesday evening, the body had not been formally identified, but Noah’s family had been told, with the discovery being treated as “not suspicious but unexplained”.

On Thursday, Noah’s father Rhys Woods confirmed the worst. “Noah was the sweetest and most innocent little boy, with nothing but love to give, and we are going to miss him so very much,” Rhys Woods wrote in a post on Facebook, according to the BBC.

“This was the most heartbreaking outcome for us, we were just hoping that he would be hiding somewhere obvious where someone could find him, that’s what we kept telling ourselves the whole time.”

There’s been an outpouring of support for the family on social media – including from parents of autistic children, who have spoken of knowing only too well that feeling of absolute terror when a child runs off.

One parent wrote: “It’s absolutely devastating. My son often ran away at that age – he was non-verbal back then and very fast but we got lucky each time that someone found him. I just can’t fathom what........

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