The Tribune

By RIEL MAJOR

A MOTHER’S worst nightmare has become reality for Natasha Jean with her 12-year-old daughter missing for more than six weeks.

Ms Jean said she hasn’t seen or heard from Yolande Mercidieu since December 14 last year.

“She came after school, changed her clothes, leaving her uniform on the bed, went out and I haven’t seen her (since),” the distressed mother told The Tribune yesterday.

“She will go out for long hours, but will always come back home; this is the first time she has never returned. All of her clothes are at my house, so someone is giving her clothes to wear and food to eat...someone must be harbouring her.”

The mother of five is stressed out and expressed her concern for the well-being of her daughter. “I feel bad...I feel bad as a mother. I’m concerned, my pressure was up, I had to go to the doctor twice since my daughter hasn’t returned home. I registered her at DW Davis, and my daughter didn’t want to go there and someone else registered her at CH Reeves, so we don’t know if these are people who maybe befriending her.

“She went to school from September to December and from the 14th onward no one has seen her.

“People (have) reported seeing her at different places only late at night and very early in the morning but not during the day. They aren’t sending her to school, so she is missing out on her education. She hasn’t been to school from the year started.

“We have done all we can, now the responsibility is now on the person or persons that are harbouring her and allowing her as a minor to live with someone I’m not aware of.”

Janet Hutchinson, chief guidance counsellor at Centreville Primary, said Yolande was graduated from the school last June and officials there are concerned about her.

She said: “Right now we just want her home with her mother and family. Yolande is a pleasant girl and a good communicator. Maybe she wants to do what she wants to do and not listen to her mother, but mommy only works two days out of the week, and she provides with the best of her ability.

“Yolande is a minor and if you have a child in your house who is not your blood and you know she belongs to someone else you should reach out to the parent to find out what is going on. You don’t harbour that child.”

Ms Hutchinson said people have been searching Minnie Street, the Englerston area and Wulff Road for Yolande.

“We have been giving out flyers, but no one is spotting her at this time, and she needs to be spotted,” she added.

Ms Hutchinson said people have seen the child since she last left home and they are assuming she has the freedom to move around. She hopes Yolande returns to her mother.

Meanwhile an employee of the Department of Social Services’ Rehabilitative/Welfare Unit said the department is actively assisting the Central Detective Unit in the case.

The worker, who did not want to be named, said: “We have gone to Urban Renewal and we’ve also went into the community where she was last seen, and we handed out flyers and questioned any neighbours who was willing to speak with us, that is as much as the department can do. We don’t actively investigate unless we would have had a lead and we would have relayed the lead on to the missing (persons) unit, that’s the only thing we can do. We did hand out flyers and attempted to assist with the circulation on social media and speak to any of the friends involved.

“We were the ones who spoke to the parent to see if she can possibly go on when we first decided that the police force wasn’t helping the way we feel the way they should have been helping, because the first flyer that has been circulated stated she was 14 and so we had to basically start over again and let them know she is not 14 she is 12 and call every day to try probe them, but that is all the department can do. We don’t have the resources to actively investigate, we can only aid with persons doing the investigation.”

The Tribune attempted to contact CH Reeves for comment, but efforts were unsuccessful.

The Royal Bahamas Police Force is urging anyone who might have seen Yolande or know of her whereabouts to contact the Central Detective Unit at (242)-502-9991.