Autistic boy drowned in Skudai believed to have fallen in river accidentally, say cops

KULAI: The five-year-old autistic boy who drowned in the Skudai River here is believed to have fallen in by accident, say police.

Kulai OCPD Supt Tan Seng Lee said the boy’s mother noticed that he was missing from the compound of their house in Kampung Sepakat Baru near Senai at 3.30pm on Wednesday (May 1).

“Family members tried looking for the boy and found traces near the river bank some 30m from the back of their house, leading us to believe that the victim had slipped before falling into the river.

“The family also found a mobile phone at the bed of the river bank. We believe that the victim had used the phone before he went missing,” he said in a statement on Thursday (May 2).

This triggered a search and rescue mission by the Fire and Rescue Department.

“The victim’s body was found in the river at around 11.10pm, some 200m away from where he was last seen,” he said, adding that the body was sent to Hospital Sultanah Aminah for post-mortem.

Supt Tan said the case was classified as sudden death and investigation would be conducted under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001 for ill-treatment, neglect, abandonment or exposure of children.