Man With Down Syndrome, Missing For 6 Days, Found In Locked Subway Corridor

October 31, 2023

Today's good news story comes from Montgomery County, Maryland.

A 31-year-old man with Down syndrome was missing for six days. He was finally found inside a small room in a Metro station in Maryland.

missing down synrome man found safe
Rashawn Williams | Credit: NBC4 Washington/YouTube

For nearly a week, Jimmy Hall and his family embarked on a frantic search for his missing son, who has Down syndrome. The young man, known as Rashawn Williams but affectionately called "Shawnyboy," had disappeared on October 20th after wandering away from his caregiver and boarding a bus in Maryland.

On October 26th, a police officer searching the Glenmont Metro station found Williams in a locked corridor. A station manager guided the officer to a hidden corridor, where they discovered Williams, alive and surprisingly healthy. It was believed that he had entered the corridor, and the door had locked behind him. Rather than attempting to ascend a steep set of stairs, he had remained in a small room.

Williams was taken to a local hospital where he received treatment for dehydration. The medical staff confirmed that he was in excellent health.

Although it was difficult to think of Williams spending up to six days in a confined space, cold, thirsty, and hungry, the family expressed relief that he was found safe.

"It is a blessing!" Hall told NBC4. "The way that we found him, it was just incredible from where he was at. We would never have thought that in a million days, a million years that he was in that area for six days. We scoured the entire [station] and he was right there the whole time."

Watch the local good news video below.