A 66-year-old US-based Guyanese has been missing since Friday following a visit to a family home in Buxton and relatives fear that he may have become “disoriented” and lost his way since he left Guyana over forty years ago and had only made two short trips back here.
Kwame Rumel Jobronewet also known as Romie Johnston of California went missing mere hours after he arrived in Guyana last Friday. He, along with a number of relatives had travelled to Guyana to pay their final respects to their mother, Vivian Henrietta Brown also known as ‘Ne Ne’ and ‘Sister Henny’, who died in Canada and whose remains were flown to Guyana. She was laid to rest on Monday in her home village of Buxton.
“Where this man could be? He don’t know anyone here…” a relative said yesterday. Up to press time last night, Jobronewet had not been located. Relatives are praying for his safe return and noting that Brown had lived a full life and died at 95, said that it was sad that her son was unable to pay his last respects even though he had travelled from the US to do just that.
Anyone knowing his whereabouts is asked to contact 222-2688 or the nearest police station.
Jobronewet’s cousin, Paulette Charles, at whose Goedverwatging home he would have been staying, broke down in tears several times as she told of her brief reunion with him. When he had left for his mother’s former Company Road, Buxton, home, he was wearing a white hat, a blue and white striped shirt, blue jeans, black shoes and took along three bags. She said that he had “bulging” eyes.
According to Charles, last Friday a number of relatives, mostly the children and grandchildren of Brown, arrived in Guyana for the funeral and among them was Jobronewet, who had changed his name from Romie Johnston when he migrated to the US many years ago. She recalled that shortly after he arrived at her home, he insisted that he be taken to his mother’s house in Buxton. One of his brothers, who is also visiting but who stayed at relatives in Nabaclis, agreed to take him and Jobronewet left Charles’s residence with the three bags that he had arrived with. He was expected back at the home at 5 pm that day for a family get-together but he never turned up.
The next day when his brother contacted the cousin occupying the house at Buxton, he was informed that Jobronewet had left since 3 pm the previous day. Charles said that though the man had been away from Guyana for a number of years, with his last visit being a four-day trip ten years ago, no one followed him to get transportation.
The upset woman said that she feels that because her cousin left Guyana so long ago, he may have become somewhat “disoriented and confused” from the number of changes he would have seen and somehow just lost his way. “When he lived in Guyana, the train was working and now there is no more train line so all of those things may have confused him,” Charles said.
“Since he went missing the stories are several and confusing,” Charles said. She related that someone in Buxton has informed them that Jobronewet was seen boarding a mini bus in that village while another story said that he was attempting to pay the bill of some men who were drinking beers. But, she pointed out; she does not know how he could have done that since as far as she knew he had no local currency.
She further related that a relative in Beterverwatging was informed that Jobronewet was seen in that village on Friday evening requesting assistance to be taken to the main road. At the time he was wearing the same clothes and had his three bags with him. He refused the offer of a cyclist to take him to the main road and Charles said relatives on Saturday found the cyclist and he did confirm that a man fitting her cousin’s description was requesting assistance to reach the main road. Charles believes that her cousin had mixed up the two villages and mistakenly disembarked at Beterverwagting instead of Goedverwagting.
Meantime, the woman said that on Monday, they received a call from a relative in Victoria who said that Jobronewet had just boarded an orange bus in that village. She said that relatives immediately went to the East Coast bus park and spoke to some conductors and drivers, who confirmed that they had seen the man, who was requesting to be taken to the airport.
“One of the conductors described him as being wet and look mad,” she said. After receiving the information, relatives proceeded to Timehri but there were no sighting of Jobronewet. They later received a call informing that he was seen somewhere in Timehri but have received no word since.
“Something is terribly wrong,” Charles lamented yesterday adding that if anyone is with him and wants to rob him; they “could just take all the material things and just give us him back and his passport.”
“This is really painful and we wish we would see an end to this soon,” the woman said as she burst into tears. She opined that her cousin must be confused and lost his way. She noted that she had “picked up a little strangeness” from the few hours he spent at her home.
The matter was reported to the Vigilance and then Sparendaam police stations on Saturday. The US Embassy was also contacted and relatives praised the assistance they received. They had no photograph of the man but one was provided by the embassy which also sent out a release informing that the man was missing.
Jobronewet has no children and he had recently retired and lived alone. Most of his relatives left the country on Tuesday while he is scheduled to return to the US tomorrow.
