Family of Missing Dangriga Boy Suspects Attempted Kidnapping After Six-Hour Ordeal

A minor from the culture capital went missing for over six hours yesterday in what his family believes was an attempted kidnapping. Around 4 o’clock, 5-year-old Iam Valerio left his home in the town’s New Site Area to walk his two dogs at the Allan Arthur’s Park. His grandmother, 50-year-old Concepcion Valerio says he would usually only take a few minutes, so she grew concerned when nightfall approached and he didn’t return home. Out of that concern, Valerio alerted her neighbors and the authorities, which led to search parties scouring the area. Some six hours later, the child was found amid a bushy area near the riverbank, quite a distance from his home. Love News spoke to Rayeve Majia, Valerio’s neighbor, about what his family believes was an attempt to abduct the child.

Rayeve Mejia, Valerio’s Neighbor: “When they went way back towards the river they met some set of people and they asked if they saw a little boy with two dogs and then the young girl said yes she saw he was in his Gulisi Uniform with two dogs but someone called him from out of the bushes. So when someone called him out of the bushes she said that he went. So she said that was it, that’s what she saw and we went and we tried to see if we could get information to whereby where he went and those things and we got information that a young man known to the family lives around there and when they approached the young man he said he hadn’t seen the little boy. Like two minutes after the young man disappeared into the bushes. So when the police actually came we went way into the bushes, like we went into the bushes and we started to holler.”

Reporter: Towards the river ?

Rayeve Mejia, Valerio’s Neighbor: “Yes towards the river and we started to scream his name. So when we were screaming his name like we heard back him answering us. So the deeper we went the more we could have heard him and when we finally.”

Reporter: What sound did you hear when you heard a response ? 

Rayeve Mejia, Valerio’s Neighbor: “So we called his name Iam, because that’s his name, and his response was “Ah deh yah, Ah deh yah.” So we went deeper into the bushes like it was almost a ten minute walk way into the bushes and when we actually heard him and we flashed the light for me I was in disbelief because it was the river and he was over the river on a bamboo limb holding on. So if he would have fell asleep it would have been in the river and that would have been it but I thank God that he held on.”

Mike Leslie, one of the volunteer rescuers, spoke to our newsroom about the community joining forces to ensure Valerio was found and returned to his family.

Mike Leslie, Volunteer Rescuer: “Serious thanks be to the almighty because what happened if he would have fallen into the river, this river has an Eddy so an eddy actually pushes around the curve of an eddy you would find current action so he would have quickly drifted away into the currents and drowned. We discovered him 11:15 last night thanks be to God because what happened also is that as soon as we would have discovered the child while we were coming back out with him the same time the rain started and that rain pounded right throughout the night so he would have got so cold and he was already traumatized so he definitely would have fallen in. So we have to also thank, and this is where I would encourage my neighborhood effort it’s a very important thing for community because the initiative of neighborhood and all the youths and everyone we pulled together and we quickly sprinted into action along with the police department big respect to the department and hand in hand we came along and we pushed through.”

Police are yet to confirm the family’s speculations.