At the height of the girl murders in 1998 and 1999, every report of a missing child raised a national alarm, sending families, the police and the media into a scramble. But now that the threat of death is not as present, it seems we've settled with the fact that a social problem persists where young girls, often looking for something they might not be getting at home, will from time to time, run off with older men who prey on them. And it's just that possibility that has a Belize City mother gripped by fear and apprehension tonight: her teenaged daughter has been missing for two days, and she is begging her to come home. I found out more.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
As Gloria Velasquez spoke on the phone, she cried uncontrollably because her 13-year-old daughter Claudia Mejia has been missing since Wednesday of this week. Two days of not knowing her daughter's whereabouts has taken a toll on this mother of three and she begged that her daughter be safe.
Gloria Vasquez, Mother
"On Wednesday she left here at one and she did not come back. We started to look for her at school along with the teacher and they say she was not there. We also looked for her with her friends and she is not there either"
Now the only lead she has comes from this single small leaf from Claudia's diary in which, in Spanish, she writes of a relationship she's been having with a man known here only as Billy.
Gloria Vasquez,
"I found a note here that says that he took her near the sea for a ride on Saturday. I did not know anything until now that she has gone missing and people are saying they used to see her with him but he denies that. He says he saw her around 4:30 in this area but only he has seen her because no one else has seen her.
I ask that anyone on the street who has seen her please call me or call the police and tell me if she is well and if she is that she come back. I will not punish her I just want her to come back because I love her. I'm afraid that someone has grabbed her and raped her I don't know, that's my biggest fear that they do something bad to her. I don't want anything to happen to her."
Gloricela Torres, the principal of St. Joseph's Primary School was today at the mother's home assisting in trying to locate the child. Like the mother, she fears for the child's safety.
Gloricela Torres, Principal
"According to the children, because I did an investigation with the little girls' friends, and they mentioned clearly that she had a boyfriend who was twenty something and I was telling them that whenever anybody comes to them, they need to address it to somebody older so that they can handle the problem because we don't want to wait until it already happened and then we look after the situation. But the children, the little girls that she hangs with, they know about it but apparently they don't know the name of the person.
We want the child to return safety home to her mother and I would want the police to act promptly in cases like this, especially when minors go missing. Some kind of amendment to the law needs to be done because if a child goes missing, we shouldn't wait for 24 hour. As I said the law is there but in terms of things that are happening in our society today, we really have to take it serious because within 24 hours many things can happen to our young children.
Our young children can be led astray very easily, especially in terms of adults convincing them to do things so I wasn't aware of it.
The mother has been very vigilant in terms of Claudia going to school and coming. She has reached the age of thirteen years and we are having a problem with our young children nowadays that when they reach that age they are moving into adolescent and there little things that as adults we have to advise them what to do because hormones are acting up and we have to be very vigilant. She has been very vigilant, I can testify to that; that the mother has been going and coming and checking on her, I could say a daily basis because she knows about it because I had spoken to her about it and she has been very supportive of the concerns we have addressed to her."
But despite all the efforts that the mother and the school have put into trying to lead this 13 year old on the right path it's been a difficult effort and Torres says while some cases like this one are unavoidable a lot can be done to especially when it comes to responding to missing children reports.
Gloricela Torres,
"It will continue to happen if the law doesn't come and put a grip on it. As I said, some kind of amendment has to be done because we can't wait for twenty four hours to find and locate a child. As soon as a report is made to the police, I strongly believe that they are to act right away in terms of that particular case with our young children because in 24 hours anybody can take a child and kill this child before the police are ready to act on it. I think the law needs to be amended."
Anyone with information can call Gloria Velasquez. She can be reached at 621-2300. If not you can call the anonymous tip line at 0-800-922-tips.
