6-YO Autistic Boy Who Went Missing Found Dead In 'Small Pond': 'Touched So Many People' In His Life

Landon ‘Waldy’ Raber, a six-year-old boy from Virginia, went missing on Sunday evening and was found dead on Monday morning, reports PEOPLE. Raber was non-verbal, diagnosed with autism and the Buckingham County Department of Emergency Services confirmed that he “was found in a small pond on the property that he went missing from.”

The Toga Volunteer Fire Department had mentioned on their Facebook page that all first responders have cleared the scene since. Authorities have not revealed how the boy died. According to the post, Raber went missing on Sunday evening around 8:45 p.m. The post also mentions that as per the family the boy was found dead at 5:30 a.m. the next morning.

The Buckingham County Department of Emergency Services commented on this saying, “While this was not the outcome anyone was wanting, or expecting, we’d like to thank everyone who was involved with searching all evening and all night. This includes, but [is] not limited to, VSP, all Buckingham Volunteer Fire Departments, BCDES, deputies from multiple other counties, and personnel from other volunteer fire departments.” In their message, they also requested, “Please keep the family in your thoughts, and respect their privacy during this difficult time.”

In light of this tragic situation, there was a community prayer gathering held on Monday at 6 p.m. at Waldy’s Ice Cream in Farmville. The post mentioned, “This will be a place to pray for and support the family and also to remember the sweet life of Landon ‘Waldy’ Raber! His short life has touched so many people and we want to take this time to show our support and grieve together as a community/friends/family!”

“We were able to do everything from, you know, your widespread mainline searches just to cover that square footage in those big areas, to your focused efforts in the creek bottoms and things like that,” said Cody Davis, the Incident Commander and Chief of the Department of Emergency Services for Buckingham County, according to WRIC.

“It was a lot to process in terms of space and size. And if we weren’t fortunate enough to have the amount of folks come out that we did, things would have been a little bit more difficult,” Davis said. 

Davis also acknowledged all the support they received from the community during the overnight search, which according to Davis is one of the most extensive he has ever seen. “It does paint a perfect picture of Buckingham County as a community. We’re a very close-knit group that has its positives and its negatives, and I think last night was a glaring depiction of a positive,” Davis added.