A 16-year-old autistic boy has been missing since early Wednesday morning from the 400 block of Wilbur Avenue in Harrison Township, and he left home without the medication he takes, according to authorities. Syare Q. Day was last seen around 6 a.m. Wednesday and is considered a critically endangered missing juvenile.
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, which is asking for the public's help locating him, described Syare as a Black male, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and 146 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes, according to a Montgomery County Sheriff's Office post on Facebook. His clothing at the time he went missing was not specified. Investigators say he may be in the area of North Main Street in Harrison Township, a commercial corridor also known as State Route 48 that runs north of downtown Dayton and is lined with shopping centers and businesses.
Anyone with information on Syare's whereabouts is asked to contact the Montgomery County Regional Dispatch Center at 937-225-4357. The Miamisburg-based center fields both 911 and non-emergency calls for 16 jurisdictions across the county, including Harrison Township, which does not run its own police department and instead contracts entirely with the sheriff's office for law enforcement coverage out of a substation on North Dixie Drive.
Why the Case Carries Added Urgency
Because Syare is a minor with autism who went missing under circumstances that could pose a credible threat of harm, his case fits the state's criteria for an Endangered Missing Child Advisory, which the Ohio Attorney General's Office can authorize even when a disappearance does not meet the stricter abduction requirements of a full AMBER Alert, per the Ohio Alerts Guidebook. Ohio law also obligates police who receive a missing-child report to act immediately, mount a coordinated search, and log the child's description and medical needs into the FBI's National Crime Information Center database, according to Ohio Revised Code § 2901.30.
Missing his medication compounds the danger. Safety guidance from the National Autism Association warns that autistic individuals who wander without their prescribed medication can face physiological distress, worsened disorientation, sensory overload, and a reduced ability to communicate with anyone who finds them. Research from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children shows nearly half of children with autism spectrum disorder engage in wandering or elopement, and among those who are later found dead after wandering, accidental drowning accounts for an estimated 85 to 90 percent of fatalities.
Statewide Recovery Rates Offer Some Reassurance
The odds of a safe outcome remain high. Multi-year data from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children shows 67 percent of missing autistic youth are located safely within the first week, and the organization's 10-year recovery rate reaches 98 percent when police and community alerts go out quickly. Statewide, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's office logged 15,367 missing children reports in 2025, with 97.8 percent, or 15,024 children, recovered safely by year's end and only 18 cases serious enough to prompt an Endangered Missing Child Alert, according to the office's 2025 clearinghouse report.
Ohio's missing-children data also reflects a persistent racial disparity: Black children account for roughly 61 percent of all reported missing youth in the state despite making up only about 16 percent of Ohio's youth population, per figures compiled by the Ohio Attorney General's Office. It remains unclear whether a formal statewide Endangered Missing Child Advisory has been broadcast beyond the sheriff's office's social media post, what specific medication Syare requires, or whether search crews have checked nearby waterways or the North Main Street transit corridor.
Syare's disappearance adds to a string of recent missing-juvenile cases across southwest Ohio, including a missing Walnut Hills teen Cincinnati police are also searching for. Anyone with information is urged to call the regional dispatch line rather than approach Syare directly, given the compounded risks he faces without his medication.
