I found a document with a few articles about Boys Village. In January 1974, a report was released detailing beatings, drugs and sex abuse at youth centers in MD including BV. The study was completed in March 1973. If the staff knew it was coming, they may have wanted to minimize bad publicity and didn't report any boys missing.
Other articles about drug overdoses in March 1974 give a lot of information about the facility at the time. Apparently, there were over 150 escape attempts in 1973. When boys were found, they were beaten. BV was severely understaffed. This boy could have escaped and they didn't even notice. Also, interestingly enough, boys were allowed out for weekend visits with their families.
These articles have overtones of facility staff making things out to be less bad than they actually were. I could see them trying to cover their own butts by covering up a runaway. It seems like the facility may have had their own hospital/infirmary, so maybe the UID stayed there in the days before his death and there was staff miscommunication about his release. Or, if boys were able to steal drugs out of the infirmary, he could have walked out on his own.
Drugs in institutions : hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-fourth Congress, first session, pursuant to S. Res. 72, section 12, Investigation of juvenile delinquency in the United States : the abuse and misuse of controlled drugs in institutions ... July 31 and August 18, 1975 : United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
I don't have access to this article but it's from 1973 and mentions something about Seattle sending 20 boys to BV, I think? Could someone with access transcribe the text for us please?
Cumberland News Newspaper Archives, Mar 17, 1973, p. 11