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Missing boy was hidden in plain sight

He was safe but overlooked at a day care center, police say.

By SHADI RAHIMI
Published August 10, 2006

BRADENTON - Five-year-old Austin Arrington was back to his carefree self on Wednesday, less than a day after a massive search ensued when he disappeared from his afterschool program.

But even as he played with a toy police car, the Bradenton boy was reluctant to talk about what happened in the nearly 10 hours before he was found at a day care center.

He told his family that he remembered watching SpongeBob SquarePants and eating cookies. The rest remains unclear, at least for now.

"We're trying not to push him," said his father, Joe Arrington, 42.

The police were also searching for answers. In particular, they want to know why the day care center where Austin mistakenly ended up did not report that he was there for more than nine hours.

Austin followed a friend to Kid Konnections, a place he had never been before. When the facility closed at 11 p.m., Austin was the only child not picked up. Still, the day care didn't call authorities for nearly two more hours, said Maj. William Tokajer, the assistant Bradenton police chief.

"I would not allow them to watch my children," he said. "The facility was clean, but there was a true lack of supervision and accountability."

On Wednesday, detectives were still interviewing the staff and director of the day care center at 1606 55th Ave. W.

Police also asked the state Department of Children and Families to check into its registration and licensing.

Mary Euler, the director, declined to comment to the St. Petersburg Times.

Austin, who had just finished his second day of kindergarten, hopped on a school bus instead of walking with other Moody Elementary School students to a nearby YMCA program.

In response, school officials changed the way kindergarteners are delivered to afterschool programs. Starting Wednesday, instead of being marched out by their teachers in groups to meet an escort from the YMCA, kindergarten students must wait in an enclosed area where the YMCA counselors will meet them, said Margi Nanney, a spokeswoman for the school district.

"This has elicited an entire review of all of our day care procedures at the school," said Nanney, who added that they rarely lose track of students.

But it was not a new incident in the Arrington household. A few years ago, 7-year-old Joe Arrington III got on the wrong school bus.

The boy was returned to Moody Elementary shortly after the discovery was made, said his father, who works as a roofer in Bradenton.

That was not the case Tuesday with Austin, who had told a teacher, a few classmates and his brother that he wanted to ride a yellow school bus.

YMCA counselors reported Austin missing to the school after taking roll call. Police officers and volunteers immediately began checking school buses and going door to door through heavy rain and darkening skies.

School administrators viewed the surveillance tapes and called all 17 day care centers that pick up students from the school, police said.

The staff at Kid Konnection logged in an "Austin A" at 3:15 p.m., after picking the boy up with eight other students, police said. But when they were called by school authorities with "a perfect description" of the missing Austin - including mention of the stainless steel fillings that make up his row of front teeth - staff members said he wasn't there, Tokajer said.

The day care, which registered with the state as a corporation in January 2001, reports $200,000 in annual sales and 15 employees. Most of the minor violations reported to the DCF involve too few staffers for the number of children, according to records.

Arrington learned of his son's absence at 4 p.m. when he came home from work.

"I was hoping for the best but I was worried," he said. "I didn't know if he had been dropped off at a bus stop and was wandering around aimlessly, or if he was picked up by a stranger."

He called the police and also notified his ex-wife, Jennifer Lynn, who lives in Kentucky, about Austin's disappearance. Arrington has full custody of their three young children.

Arrington and his mother, Fran Rowley, 65, both said the incident was an unfortunate mistake for which no one can be blamed.

Austin returns to school today. After school, Austin will wait with about 50 others students to be escorted to the YMCA.

His routine will return to normal. But the fear caused by the incident will linger, Rowley said.

"You hear about things like this happening, and you never think it'll happen to you," she said. "I'll never be over it."

Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

[Last modified August 13, 2006, 08:36:42]