Autistic six-year-old dies after wandering into neighbour’s pool in North Carolina

Six-year-old Melinda Xie died after leaving her home in Wendell, North Carolina, and entering a neighbour’s swimming pool, where she drowned. The incident highlights the risks of children wandering from safe environments, particularly for autistic children.

Xie was autistic and nonverbal, her mother told WRAL, and attended Garden Carver Elementary School. First responders performed CPR, but she was pronounced dead; investigators believe she left her home and walked into the neighbours’ back garden, who were unaware she was there. The article cites National Autism Association figures that autistic children are 160 times more likely to die by drowning than other children, and that drowning accounted for 71% of deaths linked to autistic wandering in a six-year study.