3-year-old dies after wandering out of apartment and onto road
TOWN AND COUNTRY, Fla. - A day after losing her young son Cody, Stephanie Noble talked about the gut-wrenching pain with FOX 13 on Friday.
"We’re a mess, in and out of crying, screaming blaming ourselves. Trying to figure out what we could've done differently," she said.
Early Thursday morning, little Cody snuck out of the family's apartment and tragically wandered onto Sheldon Road. It's a new apartment they had just moved into.
Residents say that the gates for the apartment are almost never closed.
"This was our first night here and my son got out, we had all boxes unpacked," she shared.
She says the move was so exhausting, they all fell asleep before getting around to installing the safety devices to keep Cody secure.
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"We have a Ring system in our old place," she said. "We had planned to put it in today, actually. We missed the boat," she said.
Little Cody was just 3 years old and diagnosed with autism.
A fundraiser has been set up to help his family get through this nightmarish time.
Cody wandered out of his family's new apartment.
"Highly intelligent, he was able to fix little things, take things apart which is why he was able to do what he did. He was able to get out of things unlock and turn things. Probably would’ve been a great engineer one day," she explained.
The apartment's entrance gates were not closed and residents of the community told FOX 13 they almost never were.
"If these gates were shut, I really feel like my son would still be here, there should be some justice in that," Noble said. "If you have children with special needs, especially autism, as soon as you find that diagnosis, put all the safety in that you can. Even when you think you did enough, do more." She added.