By Tanya Steele
The young boy who went missing in Olinda around 4pm yesterday has been found safe and well.
Six year old Parsa Naimi was found around 8.20am Saturday 19 April by a local Kalorama resident Asher Schinkfield, eight kilometers from he went missing.
Talking with Star News and multiple media outlets at the Olinda Playspace where search and rescue operations were set up, Acting Senior Sergeant Melissa Gostimir from Knox Police said Parsa has been reunited with his parents and has been checked over by Victoria Ambulance staff.
“There’s not a scratch on him, thankfully,” she said.
“I believe, he’s been given a banana and some water, and now he’s cuddling up with his Mum having a snooze.”
Parsa travelled around eight kilometres north of the playspace overnight and the young boy had been wearing an air tag, but he had taken it off. Emergency service staff and search and rescue volunteers searched but had no luck locating him, dealing with the bushy terrain of the Dandenong Ranges.
Mountain biker Asher Shinkfield was out for his morning ride and had heard the little boy was missing but did not expect to find him.
“I was coming up the fire road and saw him just on the side of the road,” he said.
“He was just sitting cross legged, tired and cold.”
On having found the young boy Asher said it did make him feel good, but that the huge community effort was amazing.
“I feel good, obviously, but it’s great that so many people here helping, like volunteers and the police and everyone,” he said.
Asher said Parsa was pretty calm as he sat with him and called police, having seen the local social media notice boards that had reported him missing.
“I think it was probably the tiredness, I just made sure to give him some water and I was smiling at him,” he said.
Acting Senior Sergeant Gostimir said authorities were really fortunate that it had been very mild weather, so there were no major issues healthwise with Parsa when he was found, other than him being lethargic, tired, a bit dehydrated and hungry.
“The poor thing, I think he was just excited to be reunited with Mum and Dad,” she said.
The primary school-aged boy was originally reported missing after wandering from the Olinda Playspace area, on Olinda-Monbulk Road, on Friday afternoon.
Parsa, who has autism and is non-verbal, was last seen by family members at about 4pm. Friends and relatives searched for the boy before reporting him missing about 30 minutes later.
Local police, Air Wing, State Emergency Services (SES), CFA personnel and community and from near and far the searched the area as well.
Acting Senior Sergeant Gostimir said they had many resources out looking for the missing boy and that everyone went out there and everyone did their absolute best.
“We had community volunteers coming out to assist us,” she said.
“We had all our members playing Parsa’s favourite music.”
“We had Hickory Dickory Dock and an A, B, C song on phone speakers, trying to call out for him.”
The rescue effort was big and fast, from sniffer dogs, to thermal imaging cameras and helicopters overhead searching for Parsa. Members of the public were also meeting at the oval next to the playspace, asking if they could help.
“With all of our resources and we had around 200 people helping,” said Acting Senior Sergeant Gostimir.
“We were really fortunate to have members from the community coming out to assist with the search,” she said.
Parsa’s Father Siamak Naimi came out to thank the community and young Asher, the two chatting for while before he went back to his son.
The family asked for privacy as Parsa sat and had some orange juice and water with his mum while being monitored by ambulance staff.
