MO - Autistic twins drowned in ponds 7 months apart, 2011/2012

peeples said:

http://www.wgem.com/story/17278867/...l-knox-county-drown-7-months-apart?hpt=us_bn6

Click to expand...

The Knox County community of Colony is in mourning after the body of missing 6-year-old Christian Baucom was found dead in a pond Wednesday afternoon.

Baucom's body was found in a pond 200 yards from where he was last seen and just 7 months after his twin brother also drowned in a different pond.

Christian and his twin brother, Jason, were both foster children taken care of by a Mennonite family near Colony, Missouri. He was described by one of his caregivers as a playful child who had autism

Click to expand...

This story makes my heart ache.

I have identical twin boys that are 5 yo and I cannot fathom this.

Not blaming ANYONE AT ALL, but ME, I would have filled in the ponds or moved.

Jason and Christian, you are together again. forever and ever.

In foster care, died the same way....bit hinky, I think.

It sounds extremely hinky, however, I do know that autistic kids are prone wandering, sometimes drawn to water, and if they are like my son, have no sense of danger. For that reason, I will hold off and not pick up my pitchfork yet, but I think I'll keep an eye on this one.

In the comments under the OP linked article, there are some interesting comments from "s". Basically says what I was thinking, that the twins did everything together and were fascinated by the same things. However, I do feel like some of the comments saying they shouldn't foster again have a good point, even if this was too seperate accidents.

Yeah, I'm not saying there was anything deliberate and I know that dealing with kids who have autism can be very difficult. But - wouldn't you be extra careful, after what happened?

No torches or pitchforks from me, but definitely some questions.

If these kids were not autistic... I might have a stronger opinion...

But I know some of the best and most careful parents who have lost their autistic kids to drowning.
Sleeping in the same room, in front of the door, with windows locks and alarms and alarms on all outside doors.
Not showering if home alone, or locking the child in the bathroom with them.

All things that I have to do... and they've done it but that determined child still managed to get out...
Once they get OUT you have to find them fast enough to prevent drowning.
If you have a neighbor with a pool, a neighbor with a pond and a creek behind your house... where do you go first? :waitasec:

What *I* don't understand is WHY they didn't look in the water first?!
They searched other areas and didn't find him so THEN they looked in the water?
You check the water first especially with a child with autism, especially if the child's twin just drowned 6 months earlier.

MsFacetious said:

If these kids were not autistic... I might have a stronger opinion...

But I know some of the best and most careful parents who have lost their autistic kids to drowning.
Sleeping in the same room, in front of the door, with windows locks and alarms and alarms on all outside doors.
Not showering if home alone, or locking the child in the bathroom with them.

All things that I have to do... and they've done it but that determined child still managed to get out...
Once they get OUT you have to find them fast enough to prevent drowning.
If you have a neighbor with a pool, a neighbor with a pond and a creek behind your house... where do you go first? :waitasec:

What *I* don't understand is WHY they didn't look in the water first?!
They searched other areas and didn't find him so THEN they looked in the water?
You check the water first especially with a child with autism, especially if the child's twin just drowned 6 months earlier.

Click to expand...

When my autistic son took to wandering at 3 and 4 years old, there were always so many dangers. We live two blocks from a main road, three or four blocks from a river. There are backyard pools, there are over 600 sex offenders. Where do you look first? In spite of the water, I would always check around the corner at our neighbor's tool shed first, since he seemed to think that was the Clubhouse from Mickey Mouse. We finally resorted to alarms, barred windows, double sided deadbolts, with the keys worn around our necks and video cameras embedded in the walls of his room...and he still gets out, on very rare occasion.

If that gives any idea how hard it can be. From the articles it says that the second boy was found in a pool of water inside an enclosure. Maybe they really did think the couldn't get through the gate to get to the pool. I certainly didn't know that my son would push a chair over to the door, climb onto the back of it and remove the chain lock, climb down and unlock the deadbolt, and escape in the middle of the night...until he did it.

i didn't read the article - but if they were foster parents, is there a possibility they did not know enough about autism to truly keep either kid safe? there are tons of people out there that do not learn but the bare minimum about their children's diseases.