14-year-old Avonte Oquendo, an autistic boy from Queens, New York, has not been seen or heard from since October 4 when he walked out of his school in Long Island City, and his missing status prompted a city-wide search, The Associated Press reported.
Oquendo is in the ninth grade at Center Boulevard School in Long Island City. He learns in classroom settings with five other special needs students, an instructor and a parent, New York's Metro reported.
The NYPD announced that they have expanded its search beyond New York City, with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly saying on Monday that the department was engaging the help of officials in New Jersey and Long Island, ABC News reported.
Kelly also said last Friday that over 100 officers have been searching for Oquendo and that they have followed up on close to 25 tips thus far in hopes of finding him.
Family members, including Oquendo's father and brother, have distributed fliers for New Yorkers to post around the city in hopes of finding him.
"Positivity and keeping your energy at a great level is very cool. He will turn up safe," Daniel Oquendo Jr. said to reporters.
Authorities have reportedly been using helicopters and canvassing the area near the school as police are also taking part in the search in the East River, news reports said.
The NYPD have also scoured subway tunnels because his family said the boy is fascinated by the subway system. The MTA is oft-time making announcement to riders concerning the search. His family said that Oquendo has wandered off before, and that on previous occasions, he was found on the subway, ABC News reported.
The reward is up to $70,000 for information leading to his safe return, ABC News also reported. The Manhattan Children's Center, a not-for-profit private autism school, matched the $5,000 put up Wednesday by the law firm Mayerson & Associates. Autism Speaks and an anonymous donor upped the reward to $70,000.
Vanessa Fontaine, Oquendo's mother, filed a notice of claim to sue New York City and the Department of Education concerning her son's disappearance. The claim charges that "officials... allowed him to walk out of the building and waited too long to notify police that he was missing," news reports said.
"Please bring him back, don't keep him if you have him," his grandmother Doris McCoy said.
"Be good to him. Don't abuse him. Don't hurt him."
