MDS dental tech locates missing autistic child

  • Published
  • By Mark Wyatt
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. – A 66th Medical Squadron dental technician helped locate a young child lost near his home in Shirley, Massachusetts, earlier this month.

Tech. Sgt. Elijah Stewart was in the backyard on June 9 with his own children when he heard helicopters flying overhead.

“A young boy who walked away from his home at around 5 o’clock was lost in the woods behind my house,” said Stewart, who lives nearly a half-mile away. “Around 7 o’clock I saw helicopters flying overhead and became curious. I then started to faintly hear a child crying close by.”

According to local news reports, the child was 4-years old and autistic.

Stewart, who has five children, three of whom are autistic, saw similar characteristics in the young boy that he sees in his children.

“He was sitting on my rock wall crying with no socks or shoes wearing only shorts and a tee shirt and soaking wet,” Stewart said. “I grabbed a blanket to wrap around him and contacted police.”

Stewart, who has been at Hanscom for nearly four years, came here through the Exceptional Family Member Program. The EFMP addresses the special needs of exceptional family members during an assignment.

Stewart later learned from Massachusetts State Police that the boy had walked away from his home before, something his own children have done.

“One of my kids disappeared while my wife and I, as well as two therapists, were in the house,” he said. “I feel for his parents. It’s definitely scary to have this happen.”

The helicopters flying overhead were local news stations and were able to capture Stewart turning the child over to local police, even looking up and waving to the camera.

“They filmed us giving thumbs up that the boy was found,” he said.

Stewart provided his telephone number to police should the boy go missing again.