Tonight makes a full 72 hours since 4-year-old Rudy Misael Lopez vanished from his home on Trinidad Farm in the Ladyville area. Rudy was last seen playing football with his brothers and sisters on the farm on Sunday evening. But there has been no trace of the boy since and searches mounted by the BDF and concerned citizens have come up empty. Alfonso Noble traveled to Trinidad Farm today and met a mother still holding out hope but who simply only wants her youngest son back - whether he be dead or alive.
Alfonso Noble Reporting, Email - [alfnoble@yahoo.com]
Trinidad Farm with its large stretches of land and tranquil environs would seem like the perfect place to have children playing around but on Sunday evening this peaceful, serene place is where 4 year old Rudy Misael Lopez went missing. His mother Rosalina Lopez explains that on Sunday around 6:30 she called in her children to have supper but Rudy did not answer the call.
Rosalina Lopez, Mother
[Translated from Spanish] "It was around 6:30 when I told my daughter to give her brothers food. She called them in as usual. They came in but she did not notice that Rudy was not with them. It was only her other brothers and Rudy was not with them. Then I came out of the kitchen with a bunch of tortillas and asked for the little fat one, because that is what we call him, I asked Isabel where is he? She said she thought he was asleep. I then went to check the beds but he was not there. I then went outside shouting for him but he never answered. We then began to look for him like crazy and we did not find him and have not found him."
Today all this mother of 8 children could do was sit around with her 6 children by her side waiting for any news of her youngest child. She says her hope is that her child is found and at this point it does not matter how.
Rosalina Lopez,
"I think he is lost but I don't understand how. Maybe a jaguar took him or maybe someone took him. I don't know. I think someone took him or maybe an animal got him but I don't know because the jaguar has taken calves, it has cross the fences and it does not leave tracks more than its paw prints. On Monday when the young men went looking for him they only found the paw prints of the jaguar. This is something that took me by surprise because we've been living here for ten years and nothing like this has ever happened here. My worst fear is that the child has been killed by the jaguar and it continues with my other children."
And while she fears that a jaguar may have taken her child she says for now more pressing to her is to find her child.
Rosalina Lopez,
"I would feel overjoyed if we would find my child alive but if not alive
even dead so that at least I would come out of doubt I would know how he died. I would not have known why he died but I would be satisfied at least to find his remains and give him a burial. I would be better. I miss him so much. I'm the mother of 8 children but I miss him so much. He used to tell me he loves me so much he used to hug me and kiss me and was very loving with me. How can I not miss him? I feel like I don't have on my head, like I'm walking in the air I can't eat, I can't even drink a glass of water, nothing. I am not doing well, God."
And she'll continue in this state she says until her youngest son is found.
Rosalina Lopez who is from Guatemala has been the caretaker on Trinidad Farm for the last 10 years. While there is speculation that her son's disappearance might have been a kidnapping, she doesn't believe that to be the case. Rudy Lopez has 7 other siblings including an older brother who is almost 4 years old.
