A photo taken on a New York City subway may show an autistic boy named Avonte Oquendo who has been missing for about a month.
According to CBS , the photo was taken by a 13-year-old on Tuesday and posted to his Facebook page. Police examined the photo but they aren’t sure if it shows 14-year-old Oquendo.
The boy’s family was also unsure if Oquendo was in the photo.
Vanessa Fontaine, Avonte’s mother, said: “You really can’t see the full face, but from a side view, it resembles him… I don’t know his state of mind at this point. He’s been gone 26 days from home, so maybe he’s out of it, because the kid looks like he’s out of it — he’s just staring into space.”
The boy who took the photo said that he approached the young man on the subway and asked if he was Avonte Oquendo. The boy did not respond.
Fontaine added: “I don’t celebrate yet, but I’m saying keep hope alive. There’s hope there that it may be him… If it’s him, I’m happy, and if it isn’t him, the search continues.”
Avonte Oquendo was last seen on October 4 outside of his school in Queens. Police say that they have tracked down at least 500 leads looking for the boy they haven’t had much luck so far.
The NY Daily News reports that the most recent photo also turned out to be a bust. Police were able to track down the boy in the photo and determined that he was not Avonte.
A police spokesman said: “It was not Avonte. This person whose photo it was was in the precinct with his parents… He was taken to a precinct, he was with his mother and it’s confirmed he was not Avonte.”
