A mother in the Lake Independence area is pleading for answers on her son's whereabouts tonight, after he went missing last Tuesday - and hasn't been seen or heard from since. Today the family launched another search party for 18 year old Jeremy Westby, with the help of police. Jomarie lanza spoke with the mother at the scene and she confessed her fears:
Last week Tuesday was the last time Earleth Geban saw her youngest child ride away on a bicycle in the company of one of his closest friends.
Today this mother along with the rest of her family and friends were searching high and low in the bushes, rummaging around in swampy waters for clues, or possible answers as to what may have happened to her son, 18 year old Jeremy Westby. Ms Earleth Geban shared a recount of that day with us this morning, claiming that nothing seemed out of the ordinary when he left. That is until days went by and she lost contact with him.
Earleth Geban, Mother of Missing teen
"On Tuesday night everybody was on the street because Cordel was giving out ham and my son was on Marigold facing our house and a family friend came by and so my son smokes weed so my son and the family friend went out to buy a smoke. I hollered at him right before he left because he was cursing and he said ma stop worrying and then they rode off on Tiburce around the lane. And that was the last Time I saw my son with a family friend, a very close family friend."
"But I know that, he talks to me you know. He was taking out his police record to get a job. He was trying to go to CET to learn a trade. All the young man they come to my house. The family friend he went with I watched him grow up from a little boy. All of them eat and sleep at my house because I don't like my sons on the street I don't want them out here. And that's what hurts me the most because I brought somebody into my house that took my son. So now the police told me that something might have happened to my son so that's why we came back here because this is the last street he came to with his friend. So we came to see if we could find any clue or anything. I just want to that if they did my son something I just want them to give me my son."
Opening up her home to friends that turned into family may have felt like the right thing to do at the time - every mother's instincts would tell them so. But none would imagine that perhaps this would lead to unforeseeable consequences, that would lead her youngest son down a dark road never to be seen again.
Jo
"And the friend your son went out with, how well do you know this young man?"
Earleth Geban, Mother of Missing teen
"I know him almost as long as I know my son. After school they come to my house. He sleep at my house. I use to go to school meetings for him and my son. It's a very very close family friend. He calls me mother. And he can't give me any information because they both left on bikes and the young man who owns the bike that my son left on he got the bike from the young man. So we kept asking him did my son leave on the bike with you and the young man who owns the bike got bike the back from you then? Then where is my son you can't tell me what direction my son walked off in. He can't tell us anything up to now. I haven't seen him since Wednesday morning. We do searches and he doesn't come out I haven't heard anything from him nothing. I'm hurt to think that you let someone in your house to harm your baby it hurts."
And while the clock is ticking, and almost a week has gone by without any progress in the search. The commissioner of police told us today that it is too early to draw conclusions on his whereabouts:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I know that When it comes to Westby I believe just yesterday or even this morning police had responded to information that was suggesting that his body may be in certain areas. I don't know why people are that far already. While yes we understand the time we are living in we are still hopeful that Mr Westby is alive and that will be found alive but i want to appeal to the family and anybody that if they have information pertinent to the whereabouts of Mr Westby to please feel free to contact us. Once we get the information we will respond to the information."
But how much longer will this family have to wait for that information to surface? Geban told us that her hope in finding her son is now hanging by a thread.
Earleth Geban, Mother of Missing teen
"I just want to find my baby. That's all I want to do. From Tuesday till now that's what I've been doing praying to find my baby."
Jo
"So at this point you really don't have any hope that maybe your son might still be alive?"
Earleth Geban, Mother of Missing teen
"No none cause he wouldn't have me worrying. If he was he would have found a way to reach me, and say mom I'm okay stop worrying he would have found a way if he had to borrow a phone he would have contacted me my son wouldn't have left me to worry for so long."
