Melbourne father reveals what son told parents after vanishing from Olinda Playspace east of city over Easter

7NEWS

22-04-2025

A Melbourne father has opened up on the nightmare 16 hours his son spent missing in dense bushland over the Easter weekend, and what his boy told his parents after being rescued.
Parsa, who lives with autism and is non-verbal, disappeared from the Olinda Playspace in Victoria 's Dandenong Ranges on Friday afternoon.
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The six-year-old was found when a mountain biker discovered him sitting in the middle of a trail about 8.15am the following day.
Parsa was reunited with his parents and uttered just one heartbreaking word when in the arms of his mother.
'He is non-verbal but the first thing that he said was 'scared', so obviously he had actually spent a very scary night alone in the darkness and that breaks my heart,' his dad Siamak Naimi told 7NEWS.
The family had spent Good Friday at the regional playground when, in a 'split second', Parsa was gone.
'We frantically started searching for him,' Naimi said.
'It was a very scary moment.
'It was a feeling of fear, anxiety, desperation.'
Police and the SES were called in before hundreds of locals joined the search.
'I just felt that 'OK, I'm not alone. There's a lot of people who are actually searching and they're taking this very seriously',' Naimi said.
Asher Shinkfield, 18, made the all important discovery on a trail he was riding.
Naimi said he now considers the strangers who helped find his son to be 'family', and says he is 'indebted forever'.
'This is the Aussie way. When I talk to Asher, the angel who found Parsa, and God bless him, I hope he's successful in all the endeavors of life,' Naimi said.
Knox Acting Senior Sergeant Mel Gostimir said police were ecstatic Parsa was located safe and well.
'Searches for lost children with autism can be particularly challenging as often they are unable to communicate with searchers,' she said.
Parsa's family is not leaving anything to chance, making sure this never happens again.
Even though his son already wears an Apple AirTag when they go out, his father has since invested in a new tracking device with better range and accuracy.