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Update on search for missing 14 year old boy; his mother grateful for the outpouring of support

Randy Gorbman
/
WXXI News

A news conference to update the media and the public about the search for a missing 14 year old Rochester boy with autism got very emotional on Sunday afternoon when the mother of Trevyan Rowe came up to the microphones.

Carrie Houston asked to say a few words at the briefing, mainly because she just felt it was important to thank the hundreds of volunteers who have come from all over the area to help search for her son since he went missing early Thursday morning.

“And you all just don’t know how much my heart feels, for each and every last one of you all, that don’t know me, just coming from all over… that don’t even live here in Rochester. I want to thank you all for helping getting my baby back.”

Houston tearfully finished her comments by saying she just wants to get her baby back home.

Trevyan was last seen Thursday morning when he got off a school bus near School number 12 on South Avenue. There have been some reported sightings since then, but nothing confirmed.

Deputy Police Chief LaRon Singletary says scuba divers from RPD and Monroe County looks at a portion of the Genesee River on Sunday afternoon. And he emphasized the need for area residents to keep an eye out for the teen.

“We ask that residents continue to check their garages , porches, sheds, cars boats and other areas on their property where Trevyan may have sought shelter.

A State Police helicopter was also used in the search on Sunday.

Credit Randy Gorbman / WXXI News
/
WXXI News

The search for 14 year old Trevyan Rowe has created a huge outpouring of community support. There were hundreds of volunteers all weekend, particularly on Saturday.

Volunteers and organizers of the effort gathered at the Al Sigl Center on Elmwood Avenue.

It was a steady stream all Sunday afternoon as volunteers filed into the building, got fliers with information about Trevyan and suggestions about what highly trafficked areas they might like to go to, in an effort to spread the word about the missing Rochester boy.

Lisa Fetkenhour is a former president of the local group AutismUp, and she was not surprised that a lot of people from that organization immediately responded to the call to help get the word out.

“It hits home very hard and you can see, if you look around the room here, as you see people who have name tags of AutismUp…it’s a family, so it hurts a lot right now."

Edward Caldwell is president of a grassroots group in the city called the Aces Community Organization; several members of that group also came to help search for Trevyan and Caldwell was very happy to see the community step up in this search effort.

“Pretty much everything that happens in the community, that’s what we need, we need basically to take our community back, we need to do more for our community than what we’re doing, stop thinking about ourselves and start thinking about others.”

The volunteer search effort included work by several organizations including the Al Sigl Community of Agencies, AutismUp and the Mary Cariola Children’s Center.

There are still questions over why it took several hours for city school officials realize that Trevyan was missing.  The search began Thursday evening.  Rochester police officials will meet Monday to work out how to move ahead with the search at this point.

Volunteers gather Sunday at the Al Sigl Center on Elmwood Avenue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgWcnYJ980c">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgWcnYJ980c

Video from a Sunday afternoon news conference:

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.