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Archive for October 28th, 2011

Missing

 

By: Kristen Green , Rex Springston

Updated: October 27, 2011 – 7:17 AM


Authorities in Hanover county continued to search without success overnight for 9-year-old Robert Wood Jr., an autistic boy who disappeared Sunday while on a walk with relatives.


The Hanover Sheriff’s Office is asking for more volunteers today and especially wants those who already have been registered and trained to return. People who want to volunteer are asked to arrive at 9 a.m. at Kings Dominion dressed in appropriate clothing for a hike in dense woods. A valid identification is also required.


(This has been a breaking news update. Stay with TimesDispatch.com for updates on this and other news events.)


6:33 a.m.


Johnny Mitchell got down on his knees, took off his cowboy hat and crawled under a backyard deck in hopes of answering the region’s prayers.


“I’ve got to watch out for nails,” Mitchell said as he squirmed into the dimly lit space.


Mitchell was one of 940 volunteers who searched Wednesday for 9-year-old Robert Wood Jr., an autistic boy from Caroline County who disappeared Sunday afternoon in a wooded park in north-central Hanover County.


As many as 200 of them also had volunteered Tuesday, and the total over two days reached about 1,600. Hundreds of other people are helping with logistics for the search.


Mitchell’s group, all wearing bright reflective vests, checked the north side of Verdon Road, just southeast of where the child disappeared. The search was one of 74 search missions completed Wednesday, some of them covering the same ground twice.


Mitchell, 58, knows the area — he had hunted there, and relatives own property there — so he thought he could add something extra to the search.


There was nothing under the deck.


“That little boy has gotten to me,” said Mitchell, striding back to his group and carrying a stick to beat back briars. “He’s somebody’s child.”


Robert, who doesn’t speak, disappeared during a walk with family in North Anna Battlefield Park. The search — by land, air and water, with people, dogs and horses — has continued night and day since then.


The temperature dropped into the 40s each night from Sunday to Wednesday.


On Sunday, bloodhounds “alerted” on Robert’s scent near the spot he disappeared, but the trail ended at the North Anna River, said Hanover sheriff’s Capt. Michael Trice. Other dogs have since picked up the same scent, but it has also ended near the river.


“That tells us he may have originally gone to the river,” Trice said.


He said dive teams and kayakers have searched upriver from the site where Robert was last seen and downriver to U.S. 1, more than a mile to the east. He said the river’s water level had been lowered to make searching easier.


Asked the odds that Robert is still alive, Trice said the question isn’t relevant at this point. “We are going to continue this until we find him. … We’re operating under the assumption that Robert needs our help.”


He said a sheriff’s team has been assigned to stay with the boy’s family around the clock, adding that “they’re doing as expected.” The family has asked that the boy be referred to as Robert, rather than Robbie, officials said.


Volunteers began showing up Wednesday before daybreak, and the first teams headed into the woods about 8 a.m.


The Sheriff’s Office is asking for more volunteers today and especially wants those who already have been registered and trained to return. People who want to volunteer are asked to arrive at 9 a.m. at Kings Dominion dressed in appropriate clothing for a hike in dense woods. A valid identification is also required.


On Wednesday, the searchers tackled a 22-square-mile area north and south of Verdon Road, Trice said. Robert disappeared in the park north of the rural road.


Searchers hiked for miles through thick, swampy woods with no trails, some of them carrying treats or toys for Robert in their pockets.


About 50 searchers were too tired to finish Tuesday, Trice said. About six were so fatigued they required medical treatment. He said Wednesday one person was treated for a sprained knee.


The volunteers included people taking vacation days, retirees and at least one man who just got laid off.


“Instead of looking for a job, I thought it was time to help,” said Andy Stevens, 31, of Chesterfield County.


Waiting in a long line to be processed as a volunteer, 79-year-old retiree Tommy Haymans of Henrico County said he and his wife are caring for three adult, mentally disabled sons.


“I like to think,” Haymans said, “that if anything happened to them, I’d get a following like this to look for them.”


Source:

http://www2.insidenova.com/news/2011/oct/27/7/tdmain01-hundreds-of-volunteers-search-for-lost-au-ar-1413413/


UPDATE:   Robert Wood Jnr., Missing Autistic Boy, Found Alive in Va.


Related Articles


“Mute autistic boy missing in Virginia”:

http://a.abcnews.com/US/search-continues-robert-woods-jr-missing-mute-autistic/story?id=14827692

“Fears for Missing Autistic Boy”:

http://crimesceneusa.blogspot.com/2011/10/fears-grow-for-missing-autistic-boy.html



 A Still Jacket


Synopsis


Roman doesn`t speak – not a word in twenty-six years. But the joy he takes in filming and being filmed is one expression of his life with autism. We follow Roman and Xaver through their daily routine on a farm in the Swiss Jura (Northwestern Switzerland). There are cows to be looked after and wood to be chopped. The drama between them ensues around the educational use of a chainsaw, with the aid of which Xaver attempts to help Roman acquire a feeling for physical control. A fascinating, often conflicted relationship, in which forces of attraction and rejection alternate in quick succession, develops between Roman and Xaver. At times, Roman appears to draw strength froms Xaver`s calm and understanding manner. At other times, he reacts with violent rejection. For a while, Xaver manages to wake and sustain Roman’s interest and to draw him out of his isolation. However, setbacks follow soon, riddles remain unsolved. «A Still Jacket» is a film about relationships and their impossibility. Moments of peace and security – underlined by poetic nature observations – are contrasted by depictions of desperate emotional outbursts and anxiety attacks. Ramòn Giger not only succeeds in drawing a striking portrait, but realizes a contemplative reflection on the nature of human relationships themselves. «A Still Jacket» formulates an appeal to impartiality and unadulterated sensuousness and turns the roles of director and actor, of those filming and those being filmed, on their head. In the end, Xaver dies. Asked what he would like to give Xaver for along the way, Roman’s answer is: «the strength to let go».


Director’s Statement


In search of my own social competence, I completed my civil service (an alternative for conscientious rejectors to the mandatory military service in Switzerland) in a home for disabled people. There, I got to know Roman and Xaver and came into contact with a situation which shed a completely new light on questions I had regarding interhuman relationships, empathy and understanding for another human being. I wondered which kind of relationship a person whose only survival strategy is total self-isolation is capable of, even though he presumably has the same need for affection and social interaction as everyone else and may yearn especially strongly to be noticed and recognized by his environment. And, in turn, which kind of understanding can I (as someone capable of ‘normal’ social interaction) develop for Roman, whose experience of life – so I assume – is completely different from my own? The assumption that Roman, due to his autism, thinks primarily audio-visually and not linguistic-conceptually, prompted me to focus the filmic search predominantly on Roman’s unique mode of perception. I often found myself prejudiced by clichés and scientific theses of how the world of an autistic person was supposed to work. A process leading to a radical rethinking started. It was Roman himself who gave the key to a more just and balanced approach: he wanted to be considered as a “total human being”, not just as an autistic person. This approach, which rejects any form of psychologizing, opened up a whole new perspective on Roman. I’m noticing that in common usage the term ‘autism’ is no longer understood as a disability but rather as otherness, even though it can absolutely affect sufferers’ lives in a significant way and severely limit their independence. Strictly speaking, only very few autistic people suffer from a mental disability. In most cases, their intelligence quotient (IQ) is average to above-average. Roman, too, is neither physically nor mentally disabled. Even so, his appearance and behavior are interpreted as ‘handicapped’. So the discrepancy between his outer appearance and his inner nature is only a perceived one. The typical prejudice that autistic people are incapable of developing compassion for those around them is suggestive of that irritation. Far be it from me to call into question the fact that autistic people have difficulties in ‘correctly’ interpreting human interactions, nor that this insecurity is experienced as a threat and affects their attitude towards others. However, it is impossible to infer from this the true nature of their inner experiencing. Is it not true for all of us that we allow real meeting of hearts and minds with others only when, in doing so, something significant is decided? I can well imagine that, sitting at my father’s deathbed, I will recollect all the opportunities I missed to truly meet with him. And I will wonder why I was unable to allow that intimate connection before. But for this, no symptomatic picture needs to be drawn for I am like Roman in this, and Roman simply a human being.


Related Articles

“Seeing the world from many angles

Documentary Festival opens: Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM) presents 115 films from 32 countries, from Nov. 9 to 20.”

http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Seeing+world+from+many+angles/5612872/story.html