'Help Dayna Get Home' A Lake Forest Mom's Letter To Her Town

Lake Forest CA

07 January, 2021

9:08 PM

Description

LAKE FOREST, CA —"She won't tell you her name is Dayna, but she will answer to it," mom Jill Harris says. In late December, Dayna Harris, 7, fled her Lake Forest home. Though she was only gone a matter of a few minutes, her sudden absence terrified her parents. Instead of living in fear, they stepped out on faith to introduce her to the neighborhood to get her back home should it happen again. Dayna is affected by severe autism and is developmentally disabled and non-verbal, according to Jill Harris. She has no thought of danger or her own safety, her mother says. On a December day, a few moments of panic changed everything. The garage door was left open, and Dayna was gone. It was a terrifying moment. "It was only a few minutes when we realized she was gone," Jill says. "My husband ran after her, and I got in my car." A neighbor stood outside, watching the other children for the few minutes they were searching for their missing daughter, found without shoes or clothes, heading toward the park. Though she was only gone a short time, Jill Harris did the only thing she could think of. She wrote a letter to Lake Forest. If the neighbors knew about her severely autistic daughter and where she lives, Dayna would be safer if she runs away again. According to the family, as Dayna gets older, she runs away more often. Though the Harris family has outfitted their home with alarms, it has registered Dayna with Orange County Sheriff's Department's Take Me Home Program. Still, the possibility remains that Dayna could run from her home again. So she wrote a letter. "We wanted to reach out to our Lake Forest family and introduce her, so they would know who she was, where she lives, in case it happens again," Jill Harris tells Patch. After the loss and the sharp pang of worry and fear that followed, Jill Harris wrote a heartfelt letter to Lake Forest, introducing her daughter. The coronavirus shutdown has been hard for the whole family. They have a support network through the local Jewish Community and a special needs group. Still, Dayna regressed a bit and even more so over the holidays, according to her mother. She attends a nearby elementary school in their special education program. Thankfully, the Harris family has never had to call the police to find Dayna. Jill Harris hopes they never have to. The more people who know of her, the better. Shared with permission, Harris Family. Contact information has been removed. Sharing her story and Dayna's picture on the Lake Forest Connections Facebook page, the community shared their family's support. "It takes a village," Sheryce Boike wrote in answer, over Facebook. Though she knows that the Orange County Sheriff's Department is available, having a network of neighbors who know who Dayna is brings added peace of mind. "It scared us so bad," Jill says. Dayna, due to her disabilities, has a mentality of a child of 3 or 4. Jill's hope for sending out the letter would be if someone sees her out and running through the streets, they would bring her home or call her family. "Ultimately, I hope this never happens again," Jill says. "I love her so much."