Mom pleads for help to find missing son

Lisa Roberts of South Oropouche is pleading for help to find her 12 -year-old son, Emilio Estrada. Estrada left home two months ago with a male relative to go to the United States, but the South Oropouche RC primary school pupil has not been heard from since. Roberts, 35, struggled to contain her emotions as she spoke to the T&T Guardian in a recent interview. The mother of two, Roberts said she has been frantically searching for her son, who left home on June 14 with the relative, who assured her he would take Estrada to the US to give him a better life. “I thought long and hard, but I thought that he would have a better opportunity there, so I let him go. Now I think it was a trap. When he left I did not hear from him the next day or the day after that and I started to get worried. I tried calling (the male relative’s) cellphone and I did not get through,” Roberts said. She explained that she relinquished custody of her son and her 16-year-old daughter Whitney three months ago and agreed to let them leave the country with the male relative.

 

However, she believes, “I walked into a trap. I believe it was a plot to get my son. I am appealing for anybody who has seen him to call me or call the police. I want my son to come back home,” she said as she wiped tears from her eyes. Roberts said after a couple of days passed and she could not contact the male relative, she went to the Oropouche police station to file a missing persons report, but was told that it was not a missing person case, since she did not have custody of Estrada. She said she became even more desperate to find her son.  “My daughter and I started asking around. We visited his relatives; we check with friends. Nobody has seen him. I checked with Immigration to find out if they left,” she said. After a month of waiting, Roberts discovered that the male relative left Trinidad, but her son did not. She believes that Estrada is still in Trinidad and is being held against his will. She said Estrada turned 12 on August 18. “I didn’t even get to wish him happy birthday. We put out a cake for him. I love my son.” Roberts wrote to the Commissioner of Police, who has assigned Cpl Honore to investigate. On August 24, Roberts said, she received a three-minute call from her son, which gave her little comfort, as he was crying and kept telling her not to worry. “I felt like I was dying to hear him crying but, at least I knew that he was alive,” she said.

 

Anyone with information on Estrada’s whereabouts can contact Roberts at 329-3597, on her Facebook page www.facebook.com/wemissyouemilio or the nearest police station.