An autistic man was surfing the internet on his dad’s sofa. Then the FBI turned up

By Stephanie Clifford

If you read Brandon Fleury a story when he was three, he’d recite it back to you word for word. His father Patrick, then a professional tennis coach, was both bemused and impressed by his physically awkward son. He would tell people about Brandon’s capacity for mimicry – eventually he found himself explaining it to a jury.

Brandon had a tough childhood. One night when he was five and lying in bed with his mother, she had a pulmonary embolism and died. Fleury became a full-time single dad to Brandon and his younger brother. Brandon had always needed extra attention, but after his wife died Fleury began to pick up on more unusual elements of his son’s behaviour. A girl from the neighbourhood would pull him around in a wagon “like he was a puppy”; Brandon seemed uneasy with it yet unable to articulate his discomfort. At their home in Santa Ana, California, he would repeat phrases and questions over and over again, or open and shut doors repeatedly. Sometimes he would flush the toilet 30 times in a row, giggling.