The death of an autistic child in British Columbia's southern Interior was preventable, says a company that lets parents track their kids using GPS technology.
The body of 12-year-old John Fulton was found in a neighbour's condo two days after he disappeared from his home in Grand Forks. A 42-year-old woman is in police custody.
Leslie Lauren, the vice president of Amber Alert GPS, says the boy could have been found by using one of its tiny wireless tracking devices -- which can track a child to within three metres.
"If the GPS was on John at the time it doesn't go to sleep so his mother would know within 60 seconds where he is and it would have been prevented," Lauren told ctvbc.ca.
Fulton's family has publicly criticized the B.C. RCMP for not issuing an Amber Alert after his disappearance -- saying the child wouldn't have run away from home because his autism prevents him from leaving his comfort zone.
Lauren says GPS assists the North American Amber Alert program by making it easier for parents and law authorities to find a child -- before the child abduction Amber Alert is issued. In this case, she says, an Amber Alert wouldn't be needed because of an SOS function that allows parents to listen to what is going on around their child.
"So while they were trying to look for him his parents and the police would have been able to listen to his surroundings without the abductor and John knowing they were listening," she said.
"We could show police his exact location so they could send an immediate response."
The tracking devices, which will retail for between $249.99 to $299.99 with a monthly monitoring fee of up to $59, will be available in Canada September 1. Lauren says she's receiving between 20 and 30 requests a day from parents.
"They're coming from all over the country -- some with autistic children, some that are concerned about their kids starting school in September," she said.
Once activated, parents can check on the location of their child by calling or text messaging the GPS device, which will then provide a detailed map of their location within seconds.
Guardians can also set up what is known as a "safe zone." Once the child moves outside a specified boundary, a text message with a map will be sent to all the text messages programmed into the device. It can also speed tracking function, which means you can see if your teen is driving too fast, or has gotten into a car.
"Our objective is to save children's lives and deter the bad guy because we want them to know that we're out there," Company CEO Ken Corey said.
"We hope they'll have second thoughts before doing the horrific and horrible things no parent wants to imagine."
More information is available at the Amber Alert GPS website.
