“He is just a child” – mother pleads for safe return of missing son as Police halts search

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Missing: Akeem Bissoon

By: La’Wanda McAllister 

The mother of 16-year-old Akeem Bissoon of A Field Sophia, Greater Georgetown, who disappeared without a trace at the Aruwai airstrip in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) on June 14 said the Police have halted their search for her son.

In a previous interview with the media, the woman, Jennifer Henry, had said that the Police were showing no form of interest in locating the teen, and had only gone to search for him once.

However, on Tuesday, she said it has now been three weeks since her son went missing, and the Police have halted their search completely.

“It is now 21 days and nobody not contacting me, nobody not telling me anything. The Police stopped looking for him. Why did the Police stop the search?” the woman asked.

On the day Bissoon went missing, the woman’s brother-in-law, with whom the teen was staying, claimed he was cooking inside the house while the teen was sitting outside at the door, and within two to three minutes the teen disappeared and was nowhere to be found. His phone and slippers were in the trail.

The woman said even though her son went missing, her brother-in-law never called to inform her of her son’s disappearance. She said it was until someone else called her that she found out that her son was missing.

The teen had left Georgetown on June 8 and went to Region Seven with his uncle. Bissoon’s mother said he had been living with her sister and brother-in-law since he was three years old.

She said she had left her son with the couple since they offered to keep him while she worked to provide for her family.

After the teen’s disappearance, the woman said her brother-in-law was arrested by the Police but was later released from custody.

“He was arrested last week for 72 hours and they release him. The Police said that they have nothing that they can arrest him for because every time they question him, he has the same story, his story not changing,” she explained.

Henry said what is even more frustrating is that everyone around her seems to be tight-lipped and is showing no remorse that her son is missing,

“Everyone is so tight-lipped. My sister, my brother-in-law, nobody is saying anything to me. If I did not call them to find out about my child then I would not have known that my son is missing. I am just praying that my son is alive. He is just a child, not an animal,” the tearful woman said.

When asked what is next moving forward, the woman said she does not know what else to do.

“I don’t know who to turn to, and where to turn to. I am just hoping for the best.” Anyone who has information about the whereabouts of Bissoon is asked to contact the nearest Police station or his mother on telephone number 6847056.

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