(Trinidad Express) – The discovery of the body of Tecia Henry in John John on Wednesday means there are now only 78 children still missing in this country from January 2006.
This figure was given on Tuesday by the Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police responsible for Crime and Operations. It represents the investigations that remain open in cases of persons under the age of 18 reported missing. During that period, some 793 children were reported missing.
Police believe the majority of the cases are runaways and family abductions. But among the unsolved cases are the ones dark and disturbing, all with a common thread-failure by police to act with speed and purpose to search and find.
There is the case of eight-year-old Leah Lammy, who disappeared February 10 after leaving her school to travel to the family home at Tom Street, Longdenville.
There is also the matter of Rhiana Parag, a 16-year-old schoolgirl of Nelson Street, Longdenville, who travelled into Chaguanas on December 16 and was never to be seen again. Another Laventille girl, Shanta Thompson, a 14-year-old of Sapodilla Trace, vanished on May 22, while Nikitta Joseph Harper, a 15-year-old Arima schoolgirl, got into a maxi-taxi on May 27 and has not been seen since.
As of Wednesday, there were 15 children still missing in this country for 2009, based on the statistics provided by the Crime and Problem Analysis Branch of the Police Service.
For the year, 396 people were reported missing. Some 363 have been accounted for. Of this figure, 16 turned up dead, 14 ended up in hospital, 12 were found in prison and 321 returned home.
Fifteen of the 33 people still classified as missing are under the age of 18.
And there is another troubling statistic: of the five kidnappings for ransom this year, four were children.
Last year, of the 608 people reported missing, 315 were children. Of the 35 people still missing, seven are children.
