Identified! TX - Midland, living Male, 13-17, can't communicate his name, found near Ward & Shandon, 30 Jan 2023 - Cordarius Lashun Pegues

[ClaireNC]

Two weeks ago the main focus of the investigation was to reunite him with his family. “Detectives just wanted answers and to reunite the boy with his loved ones”. Since nobody came forward to claim him, the focus will need to shift to a criminal investigation. I doubt that Midland PD has the resources to pursue such an investigation, unless, they get special funding or motivation to do so. Is there some non-profit or advocacy group that would be willing to fund it? Is it even worth it to bother investigating? Does the public need to be vocal about getting justice for this boy? Or, will this just go quiet and they’ll let Cordarius simply live out his life as a ward of the state?

 

[GoneGoldfishin']

All of this. If his prompt to write his name was spoken to him in any language besides English, that is something that would have been very publicly and clearly released by now - the language he understands is not protected private medical information, they would have had no reason to withhold details about whether he responded to Creole or Spanish or any other spoken language, and if it had been something other than English that would have been pertinent to identifying him.

If anyone would like to assist me, my goal this week is to try to contact admins from social media groups related to keywords "autism", "autistic", "nonverbal", "nonspeaking", "special needs", "Angelman", and "Phelan McDermid" (these last two are syndromic genetic conditions that frequently result in an absence of speech and in being diagnosed with autism which also have phenotypical facial features that I think could be consistent with Cordarius' features).

My hope is that if we can get enough social media groups across the country - but especially in Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma - to share his face and his story, there is a chance that someone could recognize him just from old posts his caregiver could have made about him, at some point.

ATRX syndrome as well.
He may be slightly older than believed, as many genetic syndromes result in the person appearing much younger (both physically and mentally).
He could be older than 18, in which case there should be a guardian (court appointed or family) for him, so there maybe public records to search.

Moo

 

[ClaireNC]

ATRX syndrome as well.
He may be slightly older than believed, as many genetic syndromes result in the person appearing much younger (both physically and mentally).
He could be older than 18, in which case there should be a guardian (court appointed or family) for him, so there maybe public records to search.

Moo

Good thought. Unfortunately, Guardianship info isn’t available to the public In Texas. “Under section 155.155 Government Code, information contained within the JBCC online system, regarding Guardianship Registrations, is confidential and therefore not subject to disclosure under Chapter 552 or any other law.” TJB | JBCC | Request for Records

 

[ChatteringBirds]

What has brought you to that conclusion?

The reason I lean toward his family being recent immigrants... probably just denial on my part, regarding why they likely haven't come forward.

(I actually do understand why people would just give up caring for a disabled relative, but I'd like to think they'd choose to leave him with nice-seeming people and not just alone to be found...)

 

[rkendmar]

JMO. I believe this young man is from the US, and most likely Texas. I think an elderly relative may have been caring for him, possibly unofficially. I also believe this caregiver may have had a stroke or is deceased and a friend took him to a nearby city where they believed he would be cared for.

 

[mpnola]

I had to go way back to find the info i was looking for. He wrote Cordarius several times.....
I worked with this population for a really long time. A few things of note
- adults with intellectual disabilities will have services paid through medicaid for life. It can include living services (independent living, with roommates or In a community home situation), school services, vocational (work) services. He would age out of juvenile services at 21 (at least in Louisiana), but would be transferred for adult services.
- if he can write, he can understand. They likely are able to communicate more with him than people realize. I had adults who could verbally communicate well, but when I needed their signature, it was a mark. Next highest might be a first letter. If he can write a full name, he is fairly high functioning.

My guess is they will do emergency community home or foster/ respite type placement. We had many individuals
without families. We were their families. He will hopefully be placed well and taken care of. I just hope he is healthy and happy and that his family is ok. If it was a case where abandoning him felt more feasible than getting assistance, we are big time failing. Not shocking, but its evidence of that.

 

[RememberingRyan]

ATRX syndrome as well.
He may be slightly older than believed, as many genetic syndromes result in the person appearing much younger (both physically and mentally).
He could be older than 18, in which case there should be a guardian (court appointed or family) for him, so there maybe public records to search.

Moo

I considered ARTX but his facial features aren’t quite right and he doesn’t have that super obvious degree of hypotonia (I am familiar with this disorder because of testing we were pursuing for one of my kids several years ago and it was one of the concerns we had early on due to facial hypotonia / tented lip / me having been diagnosed with alpha thal minor so I spent some time learning about it before it was excluded). I definitely agree that the indications that he might have a genetic difference mean we can’t be too strict on the age estimates.

 

[Beekarina]

I remain disturbed that no one seems to know who "Cordarius" really is.

As pointed out, he is fairly high functioning. What are the chances he had one elderly caregiver and no other interaction? He seems healthy. He did not seem in extreme distress when found. I'm cautious about reading too much into this, but he was smiling in one of the photos.

Even if the people who knew him have not seen the press releases or other stuff out there, isn't SOMEONE wondering where Cordarius is? i.e. "Gee, I haven't seen him in weeks?"

 

[txsleuth70]

Anyone know if there's a Greyhound station in Midland or close? I'm not familiar with Texas geography.
I am interested with the idea of him being driving to a bus station with a ticket to another city by someone who felt they could no longer take care of him.

Yes, there is.

 

[Arkark]

I cant believe there are no updates to the id of this child yet! Hopefully LEO are still working behind the scenes.

Wasn't there a bad winter storm right before he was found? Could his caregivers have passed away or become incapacitated due to that?

 

[Friday Fan]

I cant believe there are no updates to the id of this child yet! Hopefully LEO are still working behind the scenes.

Wasn't there a bad winter storm right before he was found? Could his caregivers have passed away or become incapacitated due to that?

Midland is used to cold. I don't believe they had ice. TBH, he was found before the bad weather. It didn't get very cold, just ice, but din't believe Midland was hit..or if they did, they got snow.
Storm was a CenTex, DFW thing. San Antonio was basically spared.

 

[Sjöberg]

I really thought he would be ID-d by now.
In my head, that kinda increases the probability that he had no local contacts in Texas - either from a different state or from abroad. I wonder doing DNA testing would be justified in this case or not. I mean he cannot give consent to that, can he? Would it be legal to pursue that option?

 

[rightsaidfred]

No idea on Texas law, but you can often do things without people's consent if they lack mental capacity and it's deemed to be in their best interests.

If you couldn't, how could he have received any medical check ups after he was found?

 

[iamshadow21]

I really thought he would be ID-d by now.
In my head, that kinda increases the probability that he had no local contacts in Texas - either from a different state or from abroad. I wonder doing DNA testing would be justified in this case or not. I mean he cannot give consent to that, can he? Would it be legal to pursue that option?

They have DNA tested him - they said they were comparing his DNA with that of the other boy that has been missing for many years, Adji. It's in the press conference, back on the second or third page or so of the thread.

I think Social Services is his temporary legal guardian right now, and could give consent, if that was an issue.

 

[azure]

JMO. I believe this young man is from the US, and most likely Texas. I think an elderly relative may have been caring for him, possibly unofficially. I also believe this caregiver may have had a stroke or is deceased and a friend took him to a nearby city where they believed he would be cared for.

I also strongly believe that this is the case. If his caretaker passed away or was otherwise incapacitated, I would not be surprised if his own family abandoned him.

My guess is that Cordarius was out in the world, so to speak, less and less as he and his caretaker grew older. That and the fact that this is hardly a huge national news story are why no one has recognized him.

 

[Friday Fan]

I think of he was local schools would have recognized. Being non-verbal, he is eligible for a Free Appropriate publoc education until age 21. I'm sure LE contacted the schools. So if he was local, in school and a caretaker died, he would have been recognized.

 

[RememberingRyan]

I sincerely do hear everyone who is pointing out that Cordarius' needs would qualify him for disability related services and protections. However, having been a part of the developmental disability community for over a decade and seeing the vastly different ways families experience and live with these disabilities, education, and programs, I have to say that none of us can make any kind of accurate presumptions about what contact Cordarius did or did not have with people outside of his home, especially not relating to education or medical care. Homeschooling is extremely common among families where a child has substantial developmental disabilities, and many families - even if they are aware of the services their child qualifies for, which many actually are *not* aware of to begin with - do not get access to those services because they don't know where to start, and sometimes even when they do, some families will avoid obtaining those services due to cultural, philosophical, or personal reasons. Cordarius being able to write (what we presume is) his name only means that he had a caregiver who helped him learn to write - it does not tell us whether that caregiver was someone inside or outside of his home, nor when the last time was that he saw a doctor, teacher, or peers outside of his home.

 

[airportwoman]

I'm puzzled as to why a person would be able to write out a word like "Cordarius" but not anything else.

 

[sunflowermomma]

I'm puzzled as to why a person would be able to write out a word like "Cordarius" but not anything else.

The first thing people usually learn to write is their name.

 

[Laughing]

I'm puzzled as to why a person would be able to write out a word like "Cordarius" but not anything else.

We've only been told that this young man can write, probably print, the word Cordarius.

We're led to believe this is his name.

He may be writing other words, phrases, sentences, we just don't know.

LE will tell us when they want us to know, imho.