MISSING AUTISTIC 8-YEAR-OLD NIGERIAN BOY FOUND DEAD IN US LAKE. (VIDEO/PHOTO).

 Missing autistic 8-year-old Nigerian boy found dead in US lake

The community of Richmond in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States of America, was plunged into mourning after the body of an eight-year-old Nigerian boy, Ryan Akagbusi, was tragically recovered from a lake in the area.

The Texas authorities identified the boy as a non-verbal minor and reported him missing after he vanished from his Richmond home around 4:30 am on August 24, 2024.

An AMBER Alert was  issued for Ryan Akagbusi, a non-verbal autistic child after he was last seen at 4:56 a.m. on Saturday, leaving his Richmond home in Fort Bend County wearing a pink shirt with an iguana design.

Authorities reported that Ryan was last seen leaving his bedroom at approximately 4:56 a.m., with surveillance footage showing him walking down a nearby street around 30 minutes later

Surveillance cameras captured Akagbusi walking with shoes but later showed him around 5:37 a.m. running barefoot.

"I saw his shoes on the road," the boy's mother, Admorowa Oladind, told KHOU. "I picked up his shoes and the camera sighted him just after in the place where I picked up his shoes – running."

Search efforts, led by Texas EquuSearch, K-9 units, helicopters, drones, and a dive team, concentrated on nearby bodies of water.

Authorities recovered the boy's body shortly before 7 a.m. Sunday from a pond at a park in the Lake Mont Bend area, near his last known location.

Community members are speaking out about the tragedy.

"I'm heartbroken; a child is gone this morning," neighborhood resident Porsche Smith told KHOU. "I woke up this morning, and it was the first thing I thought about. Everyone needs to wrap their arms around you [the mother] right now because I cannot imagine."

Despite extensive efforts to locate him safely, the outcome is a heartbreaking reminder of the dangers faced by children with autism.

“Checking multiple times is always key, too, not just once. We just had another child found in a retention pond not too long ago, that the police said they had searched before, and she was recovered from the same place.”.

Watch video below.