Six-year-old boy Parsa who vanished from Olinda playground found safe
A teenage mountain biker has been hailed by police, rescue crews and family members after he found a six-year-old-boy — who has autism — who had been missing in the Dandenongs overnight.
Victoria
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A six-year-old boy who spent a night alone in the bush after disappearing from an Olinda playground has been miraculously found safe by mountain bikers.
Parsa Naimi, who has autism and is non-verbal, was at a family gathering celebrating Easter at the playground at Olinda-Monbulk Rd when he wandered off about 4pm on Friday.
His disappearance sparked a large-scale search involving more than 200 SES and CFA volunteers, police officers and local community members.
About 8am on Saturday, 18-year-old local Asher Shinkfield, who was mountain biking along Track 12, off Monbulk Rd, spotted the young boy sitting alone in the middle of the track.
Parsa had made his way through thick scrub and rough terrain, travelling more than 8km north of the playground where he was last seen.
The boy was unharmed after about 16 hours spent alone in the bush.
Acting Senior Sergeant Mel Gostimir said search crews tried every means to locate the child.
“He liked the song Hickory Dickory Dock and a special ABC tune so all our police members played that tune from their phones and through the police speakers on the car, trying to call him out,” Sergeant Gostimir said.
Parsa was reunited with his worried parents shortly after 8am and was checked over by medical crews.
“He was found with not a scratch on him. He reunited with mum and was just so happy to be with her that he just curled up in a ball and went to sleep straight away,” Sergeant Gostimir said.
Mr Shinkfield arrived at the SES and police meeting point to applause from a crowd of anxious family members, friends and volunteers who had spent the night scouring the area.
He also received a warm hug and thank you from Parsa’s relieved father.
“Thank you so much. You’re wonderful. Thank you. The community here are such wonderful people,” Parsa’s father said.
Mr Shinkfield said it “feels great” and was “heartwarming”.
“I don’t really get to do this kind of thing very often, so just right place at the right time,” the teenager said.
“It’s great that they (the family) are all together now.”
Mr Shinkfield said he had heard about the missing boy through local Facebook groups and was out for his “normal morning ride” when he came across the boy.
“I came up the hill and I see Parsa just there … I called up the police quick and just (sat) with him hoping he’s all right,” he said.
“He was really calm. He was really tired, obviously a long night, sitting on the ground.
“Thank God we were able to find him, that’s just miraculous.”
The young boy had been carrying an AirTag, which gave hope to search crews and his worried parents after it pinged a location about midnight – however, that hope was short-lived.
“Unfortunately I think he got annoyed by his AirTag and he took it off and hung it up on a tree for us to find,” Sergeant Gostimir said.
“(It is) such a rollercoaster of emotions when all this different intel comes through … it can be quite difficult for us.”
Originally published as Six-year-old boy Parsa who vanished from Olinda playground found safe
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