{"id":365807,"date":"2026-08-08T01:14:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365807\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:14:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:14:24","slug":"5-year-old-autistic-child-found-dead-in-pond-at-florida-apartment-complex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365807\/","title":{"rendered":"5-year-old autistic child found dead in pond at Florida apartment complex"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A 5-year-old boy with autism was found dead Friday morning after wandering away from his Florida home and into a nearby retention pond, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p>The child mannged to sneak out of his family\u2019s Hillsborough County apartment and was discovered in waist-high water about 20 to 30 feet from the complex. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are no words that can ease the pain of losing a child,\u201d Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teamhcso.com\/News\/PressRelease\/a8d937f1-6ee2-4c46-95a4-fc1f6108c123\/en-US\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">statement<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.33333333;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"40245800\" width=\"787\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/769056343_2127415181503845_3420976926125529439_n-copy.jpg\" alt=\"Sheriff Chad Chronister speaking at a podium outdoors.\" class=\"wp-image-40245800\"  \/>A 5-year-old boy with autism was found dead Friday morning after wandering away from his Hillsborough County home and into a nearby retention pond. facebook\/HCSOSheriff<\/p>\n<p>Friday\u2019s tragedy marked the second time an autistic child was found dead in a pond at the same apartment complex in less than two months, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/t0i0pLThtIw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">authorities<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the latest case, the boy\u2019s father told authorities he last saw his son when they were sharing a bed around 5 a.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When he woke again at 9 a.m., the boy was missing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Following a \u201cfrantic\u201d call from the father, the Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office launched an immediate search.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.79980469;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"40245807\" width=\"472\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/766861666_1750323879546066_2974085831468144143_n-copy.jpg\" alt=\"Missing &amp; Endangered poster for a young boy wearing a plaid shirt and jeans.\" class=\"wp-image-40245807\"  \/>\u201cThere are no words that can ease the pain of losing a child,\u201d Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement.\u00a0 facebook\/HCSOSheriff<\/p>\n<p>The operation quickly expanded to include more than 140 units, supported by the HCSO Drone Team, Aviation Unit, K-9 Unit, and Dive Team.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The child was found deceased in the water shortly after 11 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>Chronister described the loss as the family\u2019s \u201cworst day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, our entire Sheriff\u2019s Office family grieves alongside this family. Every deputy and detective who responded did so with the goal to bring this little boy home safely,\u201d the sheriff said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 5-year-old boy with autism was found dead Friday morning after wandering away from his Florida home and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13709,2353,28,30,29,4278],"class_list":["post-365807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-autism","tag-child","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}