MONTREAL – A local family is asking for the public’s help to find Robbie Brooks, an 18-year-old autistic man.
He has not been seen or heard from for more than 48 hours, and now the young man’s family worries he could be in danger.
Jocelyn McCurdy, Brooks’ grandmother, says she has been living a roller coaster of emotions for the last two days.
“It’s just like living on the edge of something,” she said, describing her feelings as anxiety, fear and panic.
Her every thought is on her grandson, Robbie.
“One always worries about kids being scooped up by some gang or other,” said McCurdy.
Brooks suffers from a severe form of autism.
Global News was told he has the mental age of a 10-year-old, and is extremely vulnerable.
Brooks was last seen Tuesday leaving his group home in Lachine where he apparently crawled out of a window after a dispute with a social worker.
Doctors had recently cut back on some of his medication.
Family friend Allan Hodgson has scoured the city looking for him.
“I’m terrified,” he said.
“We’re really worried about him, we don’t know where he is or what kind of company he’s in, he’s not very good with strangers or people he does not know.”
For the last two days, reports have come in about possible sightings.
One report places Brooks outside the Cote-Vertu metro station on Wednesday while another puts him on a city bus on the West Island on Thursday.
“I worry about people taking advantage of his niceness, kindness,” said Cynthia Ellis, Brook’s mother.
“If somebody comes up to him and seems nice, he’ll follow them.
Robbie Brooks is about 5 foot 9 with brown hair and brown eyes.
“We’re concerned he’s going to do something harmful to himself or other,” said Hodgson.
The family is desperate and asks anyone with information to call police as soon as possible.
Brooks has spent two nights in the big city on his own, a place his family says that’s no place for a defenceless young man.
“We are concerned he may have fallen into a group of harmful people,” said McCurdy.
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