CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. – A four-year-old girl wandered from her home and it’s something families who have children with autism know all too well. 

Kathy Gray has a 23-year-old son with autism. She says it’s different and difficult some days to raise him.

“The last of many many elopements as they call them, that he got out of the house, I was actually working at the counter there, and he slipped out of the house and went up the street and crossed six lanes of U.S. 41 to go to 7-Eleven because he wanted donuts, and he didn’t get them in the morning,” Gray described. 

Experts say children with autism tend to wander or elope, just like four-year-old Evelyn Geer wandered from her family’s rental.

Anjali Van Drie works for Family Initiative. She said some safety measures are harder to get for children with autism.

“Swim and safety lessons around water but the challenges some of our families face is finding swim instructors who are willing to work with our kids,” Van Drie explained.

Van Drie said a good way to keep children with autism safe, is to ask your neighbors for help.

“I think for all of us as a community, just be aware and figure out how to work together to support families,” Van Drie said.

So tragedies can be avoided.

Gray said, “It’s not something that the parents, they will, should feel guilty about because they were just trying to have some normalcy in a life with a child with autism.”

We are still waiting on an autopsy report to know exactly how the four-year-old girl died.