The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

RELATIVES of a man who has been missing for over three weeks are pleading for people to come forward with information to assist police with their investigation.

Gladstone “GG” McAlpine, 59, was last seen on January 28 at Cowpen and Blue Hill Roads.

According to police reports, his last known address was Sea Breeze Lane. He is 5’10” with a light brown complexion and of slim build.

Yesterday, his siblings, who asked to be identified only as the Symonette family, told The Tribune they are desperate for closure.

“We’re here to make a plea for my brother,” his older sister said. “He has been missing now for three weeks and one day to be exact.

“So anybody out there who has seen anything or heard anything that might be of importance to the police, please give them a call for us. Please, please, we are begging.”

Mr McAlpine’s sister said that the last time she saw her brother was on January 4 when he attended her birthday party.

She added that it was “unusual” that no one else in their family had heard from him for weeks.

Asked whether the family believed foul play was involved in the incident, she added: “We don’t know what to say, our mind all over the place. He has three cats that he loved dearly, he wouldn’t have left them.”

Mr McAlpine’s younger sister also described him as a friendly person who was well known throughout the island.

“Everybody in Nassau knows him because when we take the (missing person) flyers around and we say: ‘This is my brother, he’s missing have you seen him?’ Everybody says ‘Yeah we know him, man, he’s a friendly guy he always stops by and hails us.’ He’s a very nice guy. He does a lot of community work (and) he works with the church.”

Describing the moment the family realised Mr McAlpine was missing, she added: “What happened was that he helps a lady out to Colina with the lunch and she didn’t see him for like two days.

“So she called my niece and asked her how she could reach him. My niece called my daughter because she knew that I (usually) hear from him every day and when my daughter called me I told her ‘No man, that’s funny,’ because I text him Sunday or Monday morning and he didn’t answer me back.”

She said when no one could get in contact with Mr McAlpine, her sister’s children went to his residence along with her other brother to see if they could find him.

“By the time as they get to the house the front door was open, but the screen door was locked,” she said.

“The landlord let them in. His phone was on charge on the bed and he was probably drinking a cup of tea because he left half a cup of tea right there and like he gone. That was the last we hear.”

Mr McAlpine’s younger sister said the family did speak to people who said they had seen him on the day he went missing.

She also said the matter was reported to a police officer from the Central Detective Unit (CDU) who told them he would look into the matter.

“My sister was giving him information and stuff like that and he was saying he’s going to check it out. Everything she hear she would call him and tell him.

“But he said that when he is finished his investigation he will turn it over to the person in charge of missing persons and they would probably call us to bring us up to date with what is what. But it’s three weeks now and we haven’t heard from them.”

Police issued a missing person flyer for Mr McAlpine earlier this month.

According to the family, the police are using Mr McAlpine’s phone and footage from cameras at his residence to aid in their investigation.

They told The Tribune their brother was driving his employer’s car when he went missing, but now he and the car are nowhere to be found.

“The car that is missing is a four-door burgundy Honda – one of the late models,” his younger sister explained.

“He was driving that because his car wasn’t working. He doesn’t usually drive that, he would just bring it for a spin and carry it back because he always said he doesn’t want fool with these people car in case someone knock it. So he vanished, the car vanished and nobody find the car nowhere.

“Usually when people steal cars, you find it strip and throw somewhere, but everywhere we go — we been in bush after bush (and) through old abandoned house — we ain’t see no trace of the car and no trace of him.”

Insisting that all the family wants is closure, she added: “Just say something if you know something. Or if you’re holding him, let him go or throw him somewhere on the side of the road or put him somewhere someone could find him.

“Anybody who have any information, no matter how small it is (should speak up). It might not mean nothing to them, but it means something to us because we have been east, west, north and south.

“You name it and we been it. It’s impossible for someone to vanish off the face of the earth and nobody knows nothing and you can’t see or hear from them.”

Anyone with information on Mr McAlpine’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991/2 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328-TIPS (8477).