It’s a parent’s worst nightmare to lose their child. Earlier this week, a 6-year-old non-verbal autistic boy named Zayn Rayyan Abdul Matiin went missing after coming home from school with his mother, Ismanira Abdul Manaf in Damansara Damai.
As seen in the poster below, the boy was last seen on Tuesday at 12:10pm wearing his school uniform. Tragically, last night (Wednesday, 6th December) at around 10pm, it was reported that the child had been found dead.
According to several news reports, the victim’s body was discovered by a group of residents who were carrying out a search and rescue operation. He was found lying down at a river about 200 metres away from his family’s residence. The discovery of the young boy’s body was confirmed by Petaling Jaya Regional Police Chief, Assistant Commissioner Mohamad Fakhrudin Abdul Hamid, who was at the scene of the incident.
“I can’t comment further because we have just found the victim’s body and are now in the process of investigating the location around the area where the body was found,” he told reporters. During the search and rescue operation, several school students claimed to have witnessed Zayn walking into the area where he was found. However, the fire and rescue team and the police reported that there were no footprints or any indication that he was even there after searching the area with a tracking dog unit (K9).
Young Zayn was first reported missing after his mother noticed his absence when they were returning to their apartment unit. Ismanira said that her son was right behind her when they were on their way home before he suddenly disappeared. The 28-year-old mother immediately informed her husband and neighbours to help her look for the missing child around the residential area.
Kanak-kanak autisme berusia 6 tahun yang hilang sejak semalam, ditemui meninggal dunia jam 10 malam tadi.
Mayat Zayn Rayyan ditemui di anak sungai berdekatan kediamannya di Damansara Damai.
Salam takziah
Video orang awam@BuletinTV3 pic.twitter.com/vPFgL2mWlM— Ing Boon Seng (@boonNewsMPB) December 6, 2023
At the time of writing, there has been no update on the cause of death or how the boy ended up at the river. For now, we offer our deepest condolences to the grieving family. May they find strength to go through this hardship.
Sources: TheRakyatPost, BHarian, Kosmo, Twitter
