Saying a child is autistic when in fact he is not diagnosed could have multiple causes. My major theories...
1. He's autistic; he's just not yet been evaluated. At the time that Malik went missing, they had started to suspect, maybe scheduled an appointment, but hadn't actually gotten official word. That would be a very innocuous reason to tell the police he's autistic--because if they're sure enough, then it is relevant information. Two is around the age of diagnosis for autism in areas where awareness is high and medical care is available, and it's a good age because children at two can get a head start on learning important coping skills that will be invaluable as they grow.
2. He's not autistic, but they've been watching the news. They know how much local publicity young autistic kids get when they leave their homes and get lost. They want to take advantage of that, and they're saying he's autistic because they want their little boy back and they'd be willing to swear up and down that he was an alien from Jupiter if only it would improve the chances that the searchers would find him.
3. He's not autistic, and there's foul play involved; the autism claim is part of the cover-up. The boy was abducted or killed, and the perpetrator knows that autistic children are at risk from wandering. They want this case to be seen as yet another autistic child dead too young--a tragedy but not a crime. Or maybe they are claiming he's autistic as a way of justifying their actions perhaps either to themselves or to the public.
That third possibility is the one that scares me the most, because I know of other cases where a perpetrator claimed that a non-autistic child was autistic:
Marquail Johnson: Went missing and was found dead in a refrigerator. Family said he was autistic but no diagnostic paperwork could be found. His death is an unsolved homicide.
Daniel Pelka: Died from child abuse. His father claimed that it wasn't worth beating Daniel because he was autistic and wouldn't feel pain. He wasn't autistic; he was just learning English as a second language.
Lexie Agyepong-Glover: Died from being left in a freezing creek in January by her adoptive mother, who claimed she was autistic and wandering. The town turned out to search for her. Only later was it revealed that Lexie had RAD, not autism, and that she had not wandered off but had been deliberately abandoned and left for dead.
There are also a few deaths where actually autistic children were killed and their parents tried to disguise it as a wandering case, usually by putting the body into a pool or pond, and a few deaths where autistic children known to be at risk for wandering were left deliberately unattended by parents who either didn't care or actually wanted the child to die.
I really hope this is a family abduction case, and that little Malik is hidden away somewhere, confused but safe and warm.
