The 37-year-old father was pushing his son Leon in his special needs chair around 4 a.m. on August 29 in St.Johann in Tirol, Austria. According to police, the father was hit in the back of the head with a bottle by an unidentified assailant.
Leon suffered from the rare genetic condition SYNGAP1, which causes severe learning difficulties. After his father fell to the ground unconscious, Leon was left to wander, disoriented.
His condition meant that he could not speak. Tragically, Leon fell into the nearby Kitzbueheler Ache River and drowned.
The cause of his death was confirmed by an autopsy later that day. A pedestrian found the father when he regained consciousness at around 5.20am.
Police said she did not remember what happened, but asked her about her son.
At that moment, Leon’s chair was nowhere to be seen. While dozens of kind locals joined the search to find the little boy, the worst was confirmed an hour later when his body was pulled from the river.
Police believe Leon got off the chair by himself and then accidentally fell into the river and was swept 600 meters downstream, where he was found dead. In a surprising discovery, the father’s cell phone and wallet were found in the vicinity of the crime scene.
They also raised questions about why she was taking her son out at such an early hour.
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But local media pointed out that this could have been due to the state of Leon. The condition disrupts his sleep, possibly explaining why his father would take him outside at that time.
Police had not yet spoken to the father as of this morning. He is currently in the hospital, and his name is not being withheld.
According to the police, he was of Austrian nationality. The investigation is ongoing.