MANITOWANING—It started out as the most normal of days, but soon the parents of an autistic man would find themselves spending the night of Monday, March 11 facing down one of the worst nightmares of those who provide care to an autistic child. Kaelan Peltier, the 24-year-old son of Robbie Shawana, Denise Shawana-McKenzie of Manitowaning and mom Janice Peltier of Wiikwemkoong, went out to play with his faithful green stuffy dinosaur and wandered off into the bush and became lost. It is a story that too often doesn’t end well—this time was thankfully different.
“He often goes for walks,” said Ms. Shawana-McKenzie of her stepson Kaelan as The Expositor and Kaelan’s parents sat down in their Holiday Haven Road home to chat about the past few days’ events. For Ms. Shawana-McKenzie, the ordeal was made even worse, if possible, by being away from home taking another of their charges to medical appointments in Sudbury.
“It was daylight when he left,” recalled Mr. Shawana, estimating around 6 or 7 o’clock in the evening. Kaelan was wearing an orange golf shirt and track pants when he stepped out into the family’s yard with a bag of toys. It was an ordinary afternoon and nothing unusual. “He likes to play outside by the playground equipment.”
“We never had a problem,” said Ms. Shawana-McKenzie. “He must have become disoriented.”
This wasn’t the first time that Kaelan had been the centre of a frantic search, however, when he was just past being a toddler he went missing, only to be later found hiding in the trunk of his mother’s car. It wasn’t until he popped the seat from inside that they discovered his hiding place.
There was good reason Mr. Shawana was unconcerned about Kaelan’s heading outside to play this time, even should he leave the yard to visit the play structures at a nearby park. Kaelan’s track pants were fitted with an Angelsave tracking device that allows his parents to see where he is going on their smartphones. The tracker sends Kaelan’s parents a notification when he leaves the property—no such alert had occurred.
“It was getting later and was dark outside, so I decided it was time for Kaelan to come in,” recalled Mr. Shawana. He called for his son, but there was no response. Going upstairs to check Kaelan’s room, Mr. Shawana discovered to his distress that his son had changed clothes before going outside to play. His tracker was there on the floor, still attached to his track pants.
Kaelan’s parents explained that the tracker cannot be easily removed from his clothing, needing a special key to unlock the device. “It’s kind of like the things they attached to clothes in a store,” said Mr. Shawana. Kaelan had learned how to remove the device, so his parents began hiding the key.
After searching the immediate area looking for his son, checking out the playground equipment where he was wont to play, and as by this time it was getting very late, Mr. Shawana became concerned and called the police. The response was swift and thorough.
“They began by searching the house,” said Mr. Shawana, then the police began to fan out. As the search expanded through the night, over 30 police officers, Conservation Officers and both the OPP and MNR canine units, a host of infrared equipped drones from nearby Wiikwemkoong and the OPP helicopter would become engaged in the search.
Kaelan’s mother, Janice Peltier arrived from her home in Wiikwemkoong to hold vigil as well.
“She was beside herself,” said Mr. Shawana, who was adamant that Kaelan’s mother be acknowledged as well.
As word of Kaelan’s disappearance spread online, a host of friends, neighbours and even concerned strangers began arriving to help with the search—although at first they were unable to take part. “The police don’t want untrained people involved at the start as they could mess up his tracks,” noted Mr. Shawana.
The police then instituted a grid-like search of the area on foot and with the aid of drones and helicopter whirring overhead.
Kaelan’s Manitoulin Special Olympics (MSO) family were there as well, making coffee and providing support to the family as they waited.
Thanks to the wet early spring weather, Mr. Shawana was able to supply the police with a clear imprint of Kaelan’s footprint that proved invaluable in identifying his tracks. Kaelan is very distinctive, being 230 pounds and standing at six-foot-six and his shoes are a comparable size 13.
As the hours went by and the night grew colder, Kaelan’s parent’s anxiety grew. They knew their child was ill-equipped to deal with the ordeal and lightly dressed in the sub-zero temperatures.
Adding to their concern are the nearby shores of Manitowaning Bay, with its chancy ice cover.
“We deliberately avoid taking Kaelan out on the ice,” said Ms. Shawana-McKenzie. “Although we would like to be able to go ice fishing, we don’t want Kaelan thinking going out on the ice is a normal thing to do.”
As the frantic night passed, there were sightings reported. One nearby neighbour reported seeing Kaelan shortly after news broke of his disappearance. “We knew it was him because he is very distinctive,” said Mr. Shawana, “wearing an orange shirt.” Not to mention standing at over six-and-a-half feet. That was on Monkhouse Road, a considerable distance from the Shawana home.
Not long after news of Kaelan’s disappearance, Mr. Shawana received a call from Wiikwemkoong’s Information Technology manager Mike McCormick offering the community’s search drones to assist.
When police are searching for a lost person, the approach of an officer to the door can up anxiety. MSO coach Janice Anning said that her stomach dropped as she opened the door for the officer. “We found him,” were the officer’s first words, followed by confirmation that Kaelan was alive.
He had been found by the helicopter, although the K-9 units were closing in by that point as well. Cold, shivering with hypothermia, wet and disoriented, but in thankful answer to the host of prayers being offered across Manitoulin and beyond, he is alive.
Kaelan’s body speaks testimony to his ordeal through the night, cut, battered and covered in bruises that are still appearing on his torso, but not so worse for wear.
The ambulance came, but the family had already loaded Kaelan into the car for the trip to the hospital. “Loud noises and lights are triggers for him,” explained Ms. Shawana-McKenzie. “We didn’t know how he would react to being put in the ambulance.”
“He was obviously hypothermic,” said Ms. Shawana-McKenzie, a former EMS worker. She tried to convince Kaelan to get into the shower, but all he wanted was his bed. “Have you ever tried to get a six-foot-six, 230-pound man to do something he doesn’t want to?”
Kaelan’s fur-lined boots were filled with water, squishing with every step and the rest of his clothes were equally soaked. In his hands he still clutched his favourite green dinosaur stuffy, battered and dirty but his faithful companion through the night.
Mr. Shawana climbed into bed beside his son to use body heat to help warm him up. “I was spooning him,” he chuckled. “He was looking at me strange and I explained that I was trying to warm him up.” That did the trick, as Kaelan relented and got up and stepped into the shower.
“He collapsed on the floor of the shower,” said Ms. Shawana-McKenzie. “I just let the water run over him.”
Eventually, the shivering subsided and Kaelan’s body temperature returned to normal.
“The police were awesome,” shared Mr. Shawana, who was able to see the search pattern underway on the police computer screen. Kaelan had walked over 22 kilometres during the night.
As Mr. Shawana shook police officers’ hands, thanking them for helping to save his son, they in turn thanked him. “They were so thankful things turned out alright,” he said. “Things rarely turn out well in these kinds of searches.”
“We are so grateful to the police, MNR, MSO and all the people who came out to help, who offered their prayers and support,” said Mr. Shawana, a sentiment shared by his spouse.
The Shawana’s home is equipped with doorbell cameras, special locks that make it challenging to open the doors to the outside, as well as the aforementioned tracking device. (Another tracker has also been ordered and plans are in place to prevent another untracked adventure.) “We will be putting his clothes away that don’t have a tracker,” noted Mr. Shawana.
The couple have tried bracelets and other types of tracking devices, but Kaelan takes them off. Even putting them on his T-shirts has proven problematic, as he tears the cloth off leaving an 80s-style workout shirt remains.
Kaelan was too shy to pose for a photo with his relieved parents and spent most of the interview in his room, only coming down to collect a quick snack. But that is okay, he is home safe.
