India, July 15 -- A new alert system called the Ian Alert has officially been launched in Kentucky to help locate missing children with autism or mental illness. The system was created in memory of Ian Sousis, a nine-year-old boy with autism who drowned in the Ohio River after running away from a children's home in June 2022.

The Ian Alert is specifically designed for children under 18 who have a diagnosed mental illness and are reported missing under conditions suggesting they could be in danger, WLWT reported. To put the alert system into practice, a bill passed in the legislature was signed into law by Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear in July 2025, the report added.

Ian's grandmother, Rhonda O'Brien, had spent the last two years advoca...