The Tribune

By RIEL MAJOR

YOLANDE Mercidieu, the 12-year-old girl who was missing for seven weeks, was found Thursday in good health and is currently in the care of the Department of Social Services, The Tribune was told. 

Stephanie St Fleur, Rights Bahamas president, said she and Natasha Jean, the girl’s mother, were at the Central Detective Unit to follow up on the investigation when someone called in with a tip, leading officers to the child. Ms St Fleur said: “When (Natasha) saw (Yolande) she broke down in tears. She was really hurt and overjoyed at the same time to know that her child was alive.”

Ms Jean wants the best care for her daughter, said Ms St Fleur and pleaded with the police and social services officials to give her daughter the help she needs. 

Ms St Fleur said: “She is in the care of social services right now. Sometimes we need to get this information out to the public so they can understand. For some people who don’t know, who are harbouring kids...whenever you see the police release something to say a child is missing, it is your public duty to make sure that the police know the child was in your custody.

“I feel awesome because I have a 12-year-old daughter. It has been seven weeks and sometimes people don’t follow up and so without following up things die. This is normal in our country where children go missing go and they’re found and there is no follow up to alert the public that the child was found. We have to do better as a community when it comes to things like that.” 

For her part, Ms Jean thanked police, the media and every person who shared posts online or anonymously called the police with tips.

She said: “I’m grateful and thankful.”