A Missouri family is speaking out after a 44-year-old man with autism drowned in a neighborhood pond, per WBRC.
Darran Hutson, who had autism and was nonverbal, drowned on June 14 in a pond in the St. Charles County subdivision of Walnut Creek. Hutson reportedly died after walking into the water.
“A lot of autistic people just don’t get understood, and one of the things we knew is that Darran loved water,” Hutson’s brother, Dion Fields, said. “For them to have scuba diver people to get Darran’s body out of there, that’s a problem.”
Following Hutson's death, family members are urging officials to increase safety precautions around the neighborhood pond.
“We had an officer. He was on the scene within the first minute, and he just couldn’t get to him,” Fields said. “I want them to come out and fix the dangerous situation because there’s a steep drop in the pond.”
Hutson is being remembered as someone who beamed happiness from the inside out.
“The favorite memory is in the morning when he wakes up and he’s smiling and getting ready to go to daycare,” Fields said. “A lot of times they [people with autism] can’t communicate how they feel. They don’t get the sense of being heard. That was one thing I learned about Darran.”
Fields, who took guardianship of Hutson a few months ago, started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for funeral expenses.
“Dying the way that he did, it just put a financial strain on us to really just try to seek help for him,” Fields said.
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