Missing Autistic Boy Found Dead In Pond Near South Carolina Home

A 4-year-old autistic boy from New York was visiting his grandmother in South Carolina when he disappeared on Christmas Eve. Sadly, young Jayden Morrison was found dead in a retention pond on the day after Christmas.

NBC Washington reported that his body was found around 11 a.m. on Friday morning in the pond which sat behind two homes in Little River, South Carolina. He went missing nearly 48 hours earlier, not far from where his body was found.

The Horry County Police Department believe that he drowned.

A medic volunteer found the young autistic boy’s body in the pond. He was still in the pajamas that he was last seen in, when he went missing on Christmas Eve.

According to WMFB News, Christmas Day was spent searching for the boy, as hundreds of volunteers and emergency workers joined in. His mother had left him with his grandmother on Wednesday evening when she went to Wal-Mart.

The grandmother said she turned her back momentarily, and then the boy was gone.

Divers went into ponds in a five square-mile area looking for the young autistic boy. All of those searching for him were joined by helicopters, drones, four-wheelers, vehicles, and more, but he ended up being found in a pond that was just 10 houses down from where he was staying.

Water levels in the pond had lowered, and that was when the volunteer medic ended up finding the young boy’s body. Searchers could not see fully in them a day or two before.

During the search, there were large spotlights and children’s music playing in hopes that it would bring Jayden toward it.

Tabatha Morrison, the mother of young Jayden, said the family arrived at her mother’s home on Christmas Eve. When he went missing, she gave a tearful and desperate plea to find him.

“He’s never been out of our eyesight, he’s never walked out of the door before. And they’ve searched everywhere. Where could he be?”

Morrison said that Jayden was non-communicative and probably wouldn’t have been able to find his way home. He was not familiar with his grandmother’s neighborhood, and didn’t know his way around or how to get back to the house.

While Jayden’s father joined in on the search for his missing autistic son, there was someone else at home waiting with his mother. Jayden’s twin brother Jordan stayed up until 4 a.m. on Christmas morning waiting and hoping that his brother would return home.

[Image via WMBF News]