Autistic teen Avonte Oquendo has now been missing for one month, but his family has not given up hope. Avonte's brother, Danny, posted a dejected but somewhat hopeful message on the Bring Avonte Home Facebook page on Monday.
"It has now been a full month...Each day that passes without Avonte being found is more devastating than the previous. I still feel your energy Avonte, I know you are out there somewhere. It has been near impossible to check and discern the thousands of leads from bystanders, volunteers, psychics, "prophets", and pranksters..but we are trying and we aren't giving up," Danny wrote.
"I wish this upon no family ever," he continues. "Our lives will never be the same. Miss and love you Avonte. Thank you volunteers for your continued help. Some of you have even taken the liberty to defend my family from many of these ill-mannered and hateful comments we receive...Thank you. Let us all please work hard on searching for and spreading the awareness about my little brother. Nothing would make me more thankful than to see him at our dinner table for Thanksgiving.... God bless."
The search for Avonte is headquartered at Borden Avenue at Center Boulevard in Long Island City, Queens. The post is a black RV, and volunteers are welcome at any time, according to the Bring Avonte Home Facebook page.
The Facebook page urges people to come to the post to pitch in and try to locate the 14-year-old missing autistic teen.
"Please get you friends, family, place of worship, sports teams, fraternal organizations and/or neighborhood together, form a group, come down to the command post and get a search assignment. Avonte needs you now!" says a statement on the Facebook page. The page also asks volunteers to create more fliers as well as bring supplies such as garbage bags, organizational bins and boxes for fliers.
The search continues after a photo taken this week of a teenage subway rider who resembled Avonte turned out not to be the missing teen.
The photo emerged Wednesday, with Avonte's father saying there was a "close likeness" between the teen in the photo and his 14-year-old autistic son. However, police located the teen in the picture and affirmed that it is not Avonte, who has been missing since he walked out of his high school in Queens on Oct. 4.
"It was not Avonte. This person whose photo it was was in the precinct with his parents," a police spokeswoman told the New York Daily News. "He was taken to a precinct, he was with his mother and it's confirmed he was not Avonte," the spokeswoman confirmed.
Hope for finding the missing teen, who is severely autistic and nonverbal, was renewed when the photo surfaced. The teen who took the photo of the subway rider asked the boy, "Hey, are you Avonte?" The boy did not answer, and the inquiring teen, whose identity is unknown, took the picture before the boy stepped off the train. The teen who took the photo later posted it on his Facebook page, and an administrator at his school saw the image and alerted the police.
Since Avonte went missing, authorities have been searching the city's subway tunnels in hopes of finding him. Police has received sporadic reports of possible sightings, but to no avail. On Wednesday afternoon, police from the 102 Precinct responded to a possible sighting at a Burger King on Atlantic Ave. in Queens. Yet, the person sighted was not Avonte.
Last week, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that he is "not hopeful" that the missing teen is still alive. He later apologized for his statement to Avonte's outraged family members. "We just need to stay focused and analyze every sighting," Avonte's father, Daniel Oquendo, said. "The more sightings, the better. Eventually one will pan out," he added.
The reward for Avonte is now up to $95,000, according to WABC-TV in New York.
Avonte is described as being 5'3" tall and weighting 120 lbs. When last seen, he was wearing black jeans, a gray striped shirt and black sneakers.
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
