Posted on 04/12/2010 8:07:13 AM PDT by VeniVidiVici
WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. -- Once daylight broke, search teams began a third full day of searching for a missing 11-year old autistic girl in Winter Springs.
Police told Eyewitness News they are not giving up hope that they will find Nadia Bloom okay. The search for her has been going on since Friday afternoon when Nadia disappeared from the Barrington Estates neighborhood.
(Excerpt) Read more at wftv.com ...
Nadia Bloom disappeared Friday from her neighborhood in Winter Springs, FL. Her bike was found in a cul-de-sac at the rear of the development. Two retention ponds border this cul-de-sac. She lives in a smallish gated community in a somewhat rural area. The development is situated against 3,000 acres of heavy growth and swamp land that backs up against a huge lake. The searchers so far have concentrated mainly on the first 10 acres that border the neighborhood as they consider the rest of the growth too thick to get through. But teams have been searching there too. The retention ponds have also been searched.
Sensors that detect body heat have not found anything and numerous dog teams have failed also.
Google Maps of the area:
An overview of the area. The heavily wooded area in the middle of this map is the search area.
Zoom view of the neighborhood/cul-de-sac where the bike was found. Here
Lastly, the cops have said that all the registered sex offenders within a 10mi radius have been interviewed.
Unfortunately I don’t think they are discounting that theory completely as the lake here is one of the most heavily populated gator lakes in FL.
Unlikely at this point but something to keep in mind for sure.
Could be!!! My heart goes out to this family. My daughter is autistic too. She use to love to run away from you and get you to chase her, but, she would keep running. She use to freak me out. I had to get a babysitter one evening, a person who had sat with my daughter before and specialized in special needs kids. She broke a window in her bedroom and threw some toys out the window. When the sitter opened the front door to go round and get the toys, my daughter took off. Of course the sitter chased her, my daughter was just to fast. When I got home they hadn’t been able to find her for over half hour. I had to call police. My daughter was 5 or 6 at the time and couldn’t even cross a street safely, she didn’t know how. And there was a very busy street about 2 blocks away. I thought for sure I would never see her again. Thankfully an older couple found her and called police. She was missing about 2 hours all together. Some of the worst 2 hours of my life.
That was my first reaction as well. Body heat sensors not picking up anything doesn't bode well. Though it's a gator lake, could any other predators, lions or such, be known in the area?
Also, the fact that pedophiles in the area have been questioned doesn't mean they can be eliminated. Also, it doesn't account for the traveling pedophile...
Where in the cul-de-sac was the bike discovered? Proximity to the forest/swamp could give more or less strength to animal predators.
The cul-de-sac is at the rear of the housing development. It borders the forested area. Here bike was found here upright, kickstand down and her bike helmet hung on the handlebars.
Other predators.... none that I know of. Black bears inhabit areas 10 - 15 miles west of here. Not sure if any have been seen in this area or when the last time that was.
I bet that was hell to go through. Another unusual aspect of this case is that Nadia likes science and had mentioned taking her camera and trying to get pictures near the wooded area but they mentioned early on that she absolutely hated to get dirty.
I was just wondering if the bike was found close to the forest/swamp as opposed to the cul-de-sac street or sidewalks. As for large predators, especially bears, while they can move a body faster than a ‘gator, they’re pretty visible, comparatively.
The bike being left standing with it’s helmet hanging on the bars, did she have friends in the area? Is it possible someone visiting a friend is involved? That could tie in to my thought on mobile pedophiles...
Am I off-base here?
You can’t always re-direct children with autism from their interests, but am I understanding that she was biking alone with her parents’ consent? She must be higher functioning than my 15 year old son with autism. That would never happen in our household.
With her not wanting to get dirty, that might not be a complete problem. At least with my daughter, if something really fascinated her, no matter the danger, she would focus on that one thing. I remember her crossing a street to go after a dog she had seen. I was screaming bloody murder afraid she would be hit by a car, she totally ignored me. I garbed her by the arm and she jerked away, there is this almost zombie kind of focus. So if she saw something that caught her attention, her focus would be so strong, she might not notice the dirt at that moment.
I think you have a good point. As a parent I would want to encourage my kids to get interested in stuff like this but I have no idea where one would draw the line with a child that has Aspergers.
Oh, I was looking at the cul-de-sac below and to the left of that one; the one on Verndah Ct. Thanks for clearing that up. Verndah Ct has homes around the circle between the street and woods. The correct one doesn’t.
Sorry about that. I should have done more of a zoom to begin with.
No problem.
Is it possible she was focused on the forest, got dirty and attempted to wash off the dirt with the lake water...attracting a predator?
Yea, I’d say that’s real possiblity. I’m wondering if that poster was correct when he talked about gator’s. :( Poor kid.
She’s going into her fourth night missing. Still haven’t found the slightest trace of her other than the dogs hitting on a scent every now and then.
They say they still want only search teams to look but as time drags on and it *is* a self-contained area, I think they should get as many boots on the ground out there as they can to look for her.
Local Orlando news is saying Nadia has just been found alive and this comes from a church member in the search tteam who says she is covered in mosquito bites. Police have not confirmed she is alive yet.
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