Autistic Boy Missing After Wandering Away From School: Where Is Ryan Larsen?

The 11-year-old left school grounds after he was left unsupervised.

Jenn Baxter
14 min readMay 12, 2023

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Ryan Larsen (Photo credit: facebook.com)

Ryan Larsen loved to play hide-and-seek. The 11-year-old, who was autistic, could spend hours hiding in small spaces, waiting for someone to find him. On Monday, May 17, 2021, Ryan slipped away from his elementary school in La Vista, Nebraska when he was left alone in a classroom around 11:45 am. It was likely that Ryan decided to hide somewhere, but no one was able to find him. Ryan never made it home and was never seen again.

Ryan was last seen walking away from La Vista West Elementary School in the direction of his home; a surveillance camera at a business located across the street from his apartment caught him walking by around 2:00 pm, but his trail was lost when he walked out of view of the camera. Investigators were unable to find any additional footage of him.

Annette Eyeman, the Director of Communications for the Papillion La Vista School District, told reporters that a teacher noticed Ryan was missing about five minutes after he had been left alone; a search of the school had then taken place, but they had been unable to find Ryan.

Since there were no surveillance cameras in the school, they were unable to determine…

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Jenn Baxter

Jenn is a lawyer-turned-author and true crime writer. She writes about missing persons, unsolved murders, and human rights. Her books are available on Amazon.