Sascha Wil­son

A mas­sive land, air and wa­ter search was launched and con­tin­ued last night for two-year-old Ky­mani Fran­cis, who went miss­ing af­ter he wan­dered off from his Techi­er Vil­lage, Point Fortin home yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Guardian Me­dia was told by search teams that ba­by Ky­mani, who was on­ly wear­ing pam­pers and was bare­foot­ed, was last seen run­ning in the di­rec­tion of a bridge about a quar­ter-mile away from his 10th Street Ex­ten­sion home.

A res­i­dent con­tact­ed the po­lice af­ter she saw the child on the road around 10.20 am. She told the po­lice she tried to fol­low Ky­mani but lost sight of him. By the time po­lice ar­rived, the child was nowhere to be found.

The child’s moth­er, Kim­ber­ly Charles, 22, a cashier, told po­lice she last saw her son at their home around 10 am. She on­ly re­alised he was not in the house when an Emer­gency Re­sponse Pa­trol of­fi­cer alert­ed her around 10.30 am that her son was seen wan­der­ing along the road.

As word spread about the child’s dis­ap­pear­ance, vil­lagers and res­i­dents from sur­round­ing ar­eas joined in the search with the po­lice, who had sup­port from the Air Guard, Ca­nine Unit and the Fire Ser­vice.

Two-year-old Kymani Francis

De­scrib­ing the sit­u­a­tion as heart-wrench­ing, Point Fortin May­or Saleema Thomas said she had three chil­dren and as a moth­er, she was still try­ing to process what was hap­pen­ing.

She spoke to the child’s moth­er over the phone. Ky­mani’s moth­er told her that her son was at home hav­ing a fruit while she was do­ing some work on her mo­bile phone.

Thomas said, “An aunt would have left the house, so she is as­sum­ing with the door open­ing, it prob­a­bly was left open, giv­ing the child ac­cess to walk out. This is just based on a con­ver­sa­tion with the mom. I don’t have con­crete ev­i­dence of that.”

Al­though she felt law en­force­ment of­fi­cers were do­ing a good job, Thomas said the po­lice should have locked down Point Fortin in case the child was ab­duct­ed.

“The child could be any­where but I am say­ing we could have broad­ened the search be­cause we have main en­trances and ex­its to Point Fortin and if it is that ba­by had to leave or some­body to take that ba­by, he may have gone in a ve­hi­cle. I am say­ing the search, we could have broad­ened it from the time we got the no­tice, to search ve­hi­cles as they en­ter and ex­it.”

She called on all burgess­es in the Point Fortin dis­trict “to put down what you do­ing and come out and sup­port that search par­ty that is here.”

Ravi Ram­rat­tan, from Ex­treme Hunters, said they mo­bilised as soon as they found out and start­ed search­ing the rivers in the com­mu­ni­ty. He said two men cut­ting grass in the area al­so saw the child run­ning in the di­rec­tion of the bridge, which is why they were comb­ing the riv­er and sur­round­ing ar­eas.

“We’re hope­ful that we don’t get him in the riv­er,” he said.

Search for two-year-old Kymani Francis of 10th Street, Techier Village, Point Fortin continues.

RISHI RAGOONATH

Ren Gopeesingh, who was in the riv­er search­ing for Ky­mani, said they were flood­ed with calls about the child’s dis­ap­pear­ance. He said they were told the child loves wa­ter but they were re­main­ing pos­i­tive that he will be found.

“The child is two years old. He have on a pam­pers, no shoes, no slip­pers on, this pitch go­ing to be re­al hot. This bridge is made of iron, so it is go­ing to be dif­fi­cult for him to cross. He might see wa­ter and he might want to dip his foot in­to wa­ter.”

He added that when the child dis­ap­peared the tide would have been high and the wa­ter would have been trav­el­ling down­stream.

Gopeesingh as­sured they would not stop search­ing un­til they find him.

“(We will stay) un­til we get clo­sure. The full team out.”

Mean­while, Point Fortin MP Richards Jr and Techi­er/Guapo coun­cil­lor Lyn­don Har­ris were al­so at the scene.

Richards said, “The min­is­ter is al­so on the ball with re­spect to send­ing down ad­di­tion­al re­sources for us to search for this two-year-old boy Ky­mani.”

The MP was con­cerned, how­ev­er, that dark­ness was fast ap­proach­ing and there was still no sight of the child.

Villagers help in the search for two-year-old Kymani Francis (Inset) , of 10th Street, Techier Village, Point Fortin, yesterday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

He added, “Of course, the search will con­tin­ue, we have ad­di­tion­al re­sources from the com­mu­ni­ty. We are fol­low­ing the com­mand of in­spec­tor Seecha­ran and I am go­ing to speak to him short­ly af­ter this gath­er­ing to treat with lights and see how we can mo­bilise for the night search.”

Coun­cil­lor Har­ris said he called in­spec­tor Seecha­ran and the Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice af­ter hear­ing of the child’s dis­ap­pear­ance and spoke to the child’s moth­er, who was dis­traught.

“When I spoke to the moth­er (it) was ba­si­cal­ly to con­sole her be­cause she was cry­ing at the time and ba­si­cal­ly to find out where the child was last seen so we can lo­cate our re­sources in that way to find the child,” he said.

He said the Point Fortin Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Unit sent their drones while Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um dis­patched per­son­nel to as­sist in the search.

Cap­tain Val­lence Ramb­harat, of the Hunters Search and Res­cue team, was al­so search­ing last night.

He said, “At 7.21 we are us­ing a van with head­lights to search the edges of the road.”

Ramb­harat said they will al­so be as­sist­ing Coast Guard divers who were ex­pect­ed to ar­rive a short while lat­er.

Up un­til the time of pub­li­ca­tion, the child was not yet found.

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Search continues for two-year-old Kymani Francis from 10th Street, Techier Village, Point Fortin yesterday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

Police search for two-year-old Kymani Francis of 10th Street, Techier Village, Point Fortin home yesterday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

The home of two-year-old Kymani Francis at 10th Street, Techier Village, Point Fortin, from which he went missing yesterday.

RISHI RAGOONATH