|
May 8, 2002
'It restores your faith in people'
Carol Lawrence The Gazette
Shawna Boller hopes the fence 5-year-old Ryan found a way
through Thursday keeps him in. Ryan, who is autistic, likes to
run. His older brother, also autistic, doesn't like to leave the
house, putting their mother in a bind. The Bollers moved to
their home outside Woodland Park to get away from traffic in
case Ryan ran away. |
By Jeremy Meyer The Gazette
WOODLAND PARK - Shawna Boller thinks about the hundreds of strangers
who helped search for her little boy last week and a tear forms in
her eye.
"It restores your faith in people," she said Tuesday from her log
home in a rural subdivision north of Woodland Park.
Ryan Boller was found safe in the woods Friday, curled in the
fetal position and wearing his Teletubbies underwear. He was missing
for more than 24 hours and survived a brief snowstorm and freezing
temperatures. He took off the sweat shirt and jeans he was wearing
before he was found.
What complicated the search was Ryan's autism, which prevents him
from communicating with people. It also makes him run whenever he's
unattended. That's what happened Thursday afternoon when Shawna took
her eyes off him for a few minutes. Ryan managed to find a way
through a fence in the yard and into the neighboring Manitou
Experimental Forest.
The Bollers had known this was a possibility. For the past year,
Ryan has loved to run. That's why they moved from Woodland Park to
their mountain property in November, thinking it would be safer for
Ryan to live away from traffic.
The fence around their yard is reinforced with chicken wire and
looks secure. But Ryan wiggled out.
"When he runs, he's laughing and giggling," said Shawna, 37. "He
thinks it's a game. I don't know why he does it. He can't tell you.
Maybe it's the excitement of the chase or the feeling of freedom."
When Shawna noticed Ryan wasn't in the yard, she panicked. Her
other son, 6-year-old Jesse, also is autistic but hates going
outside. Shawna couldn't leave Jesse alone to look for Ryan, so she
put him in the car and drove to the neighbors. They watched Jesse
while she searched the woods briefly before calling 911.
Shawna says now that she is frustrated that it took so long for
the Teller County Sheriff's Office to respond to her call and to
call out search and rescue. By her account, it took hours.
But Sheriff Frank Fehn said records show his office received her
call at 5:05 p.m. and a deputy was on the scene in eight minutes. He
immediately called search and rescue.
"I can understand her frustration," Fehn said. "But I think it's
a case of being upset that her child is missing and minutes seem
like hours."
The search lasted through the night. The boy's father, Shawn, was
out looking while Shawna was at home with about 20 people -
neighbors, her husband's co-workers and people from Ryan's school -
who gathered there. They kept Shawna updated, but there was no good
news.
"The next morning, I was asking, what child could survive
27-degree temperatures," she said. "I kept asking when does
hypothermia set in. No one would tell me."
About noon, searchers found the boy's shoes near a creek. By that
time, hundreds of volunteers joined the search, taking time off work
and joining rescue crews.
The sun was starting to set Friday when Shawna got the best news
of her life. They found Ryan. The cell phone conversation was
breaking up, so Shawna had to go to a corner of the house to hear
it.
"I said, 'Is he alive?' Is he alive?'" she said.
He was. Dave Douglas, who is in the Colorado Army National Guard
with Ryan's father, found the boy while riding a motorcycle on a
trail about three miles northwest of the Boller home. Ryan was
curled up under a tree. He had a sunburned face, but everything else
was fine, doctors later concluded.
"It's a miracle," his mother said Tuesday while Ryan was at
school in his kindergarten class.
"The child didn't even have a bug bite. The paramedics couldn't
believe it. People have been coming up to me and saying they didn't
believe in God until now. There isn't any other explanation."
Today, the fence has been fortified. But the Bollers know this
could happen again. They also believe that living in the woods is
better than living in a city near traffic.
Shawna said she needs help, that she can't possibly watch two
autistic boys at the same time. For now, however, she'll continue
doing what she's always done. And she just hopes next time the gate
will stay shut.
|
Copyright 2002,
The
Gazette, a
Freedom Communications, Inc. Company. All rights reserved.
Contact us.
