A five-year-old boy with autism reported missing from Hart County Tuesday morning has been found deceased.
"KSP grieves with this family and the community," stated a news release from KSP. "At this time, we are unable to provide further information.
An IAN Alert was issued by Kentucky State Police that said Silas Chearer of Cub Run was reported missing after walking away from his home around 8:00 a.m.
Unlike an Amber Alert that’s issued when a child goes missing, Kentucky lawmakers passed HB 682 last year that created the IAN Alert for missing children with intellectual disabilities or
mental illness.
State Rep. Candy Massaroni (R-Bardstown) sponsored the bill.
“I started doing some research with different groups that dealt with autistic children and one of the main causes of death, the children are prone to wandering and they’re attracted to water," Massaroni told WKU Public Radio. “It alerts law enforcement and neighbors who they’re looking for and they may need to approach the situation differently.”
The IAN alert was named for Ian Sousis, a northern Kentucky boy with autism who
escaped a children's home in 2022. His body was found after he drowned in the Ohio River.
To Massaroni's knowledge, this was the first IAN Alert issued since the law took effect in 2024.
"I hate the outcome of the situation, but I think the system worked as intended," Massaroni said.
The same law also established the Ashanti Alert named for Billie Ashanti, a Virginia woman who was abducted from her workplace and found dead 11 days later in North Carolina. Since she was 19, she didn't fit the criteria for an Amber Alert. The Ashanti Alert is issued for people who are 18-years-old or older when there’s reason to believe their disappearance was involuntary.
