Missing Arizona autistic boy found dead after long search
YUCCA, Ariz. -- An 8-year-old autistic boy who wandered away from his Southern California desert home apparently climbed onto a freight train and rode it more than 30 miles before getting off and being struck and killed by another train in Arizona, authorities said Monday.
Mohave County, Arizona, sheriff's officials were waiting for confirmation from the medical examiner that the body found on the tracks near the community of Yucca was that of Kaden Lanphear of Needles, California.
The clothing and description matches the boy who was reported missing Saturday morning by his father, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Jodi Miller said.
Lamphear's father called deputies about 8:30 a.m. Saturday from his Needles home to report he was missing, Miller said. The father had seen the boy about 7 a.m., then went back to sleep. When the father woke up, the boy was gone.
Deputies began an all-out search for the boy in the Needles area, calling in a sheriff's helicopter, search and rescue volunteers and using an automated calling system to notify more than 1,000 residents.
They also notified Mohave County sheriff's officials across the Colorado River in Arizona. Spokeswoman Trish Carter says a train engineer reported hitting the boy about 11 a.m.
The engineer on a westbound BNSF Railroad train saw Kaden Lanphear on the tracks but could not stop before hitting him, BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said.
Detectives believe Kaden left his house and climbed onto a freight train in Needles, Miller said.
Carter said detectives aren't sure if he fell or jumped off the train in Yucca, about 25 miles east of the California border.