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Fifth GB Boy Missing

Shirlene Smith made the report at 4:45pm yesterday and told police at Central Station she last saw her 14-year-old son Desmond Rolle when he left home around 6:30am Sunday for his part-time job at the Winn Dixie Supermarket, downtown.

“Our response, once the report was made to us, was swift and very distinct,” said Assistant Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade Monday evening at a media briefing at headquarters.

Wishing the incident had been reported sooner, the police chief said that teams from the Incident Room/Missing Children’s Unit were sent out immediately with Ms. Smith and followed all leads available to them.

“What is unfortunate, however, is that at this late stage we still have very information to work on. Smith is not able at this time to help us with very much more,” he said.

Desmond’s case undoubtedly bears a striking resemblance to the four other cases under investigation.

He, too, works as a packing boy at the foodstore and frequents the game room. Desmond’s mother is also a bag packer at the same foodstore.

According to reports, he was spotted sometime after 5pm Sunday in the area of Walter Parker Primary heading towards Williams Town.

Two of Desmond’s brothers are also assisting police with any relevant information which may help in the investigation.

In the absence of a more recent photo, police were challenged at that late hour and only had at their disposal, a video from the game room which was unfit for reproduction.

Police are considering an initiative with the private sector which will allow parents to have recent pictures taken of their children and possibly fingerprints.

These items will be kept in the parents’ possession in the event the information can be available for police.

ACP Greenslade disclosed a new campaign undertaking.

“We will in the next few hours, as we go into tomorrow, launch new initiatives which might very well cause discomfort to persons but we are going to have to do now what we need to do,” he said.

“There is something happening here in Grand Bahama and we’re going to have to resolve it.”

The Freeport News questioned whether the investigation had reached the point

where parents needed to be asked to keep their children away from packing jobs at foodstores and spending their free time in game rooms.

Greenslade said he will convene a meeting first thing this morning with all foodstore and gameroom managers and will make an appeal.

“While legislation cannot force any particular action on their part, we will certainly be appealing to them to look at some policies and procedures, because this arrangement is just a bit too loose and we’re really nervous at this state,” he said.

“While it can be viewed as welfare with the packing boys bringing a few dollars home,” the assistant police commissioner said, “they are children working very odd hours and something must be done about it.”

Desmond’s mother told The Freeport News last night that she thought it strange when he didn’t come home after his usual 6 o’clock hour, but it was suggested to her that he was probably at a friend’s house.

Smith admitted that even that time was too late for him to be coming home on a Sunday and scolded him on occasion. She said that on Sunday, he begged her to go and she finally gave in.

He was supposed to bring home meat for Sunday dinner that evening, and that night she couldn’t sleep, Smith said.

She said also that she had problems with him in the past when they lived in Hunter’s, but they had been rectified once the school stepped in to assist.

“This is the first time since he’s been controlled by the school,” she said.

Still hopeful that Desmond would come home, the mother of six said, “I put my trust in God. God knows I put my trust in Him. I always pray to God to make sure if I’m out and my kids are out, we’ll all come home safe and it always happens.”

Police confirmed that Desmond worked at the supermarket on Sunday and left sometime after 10am when the store closed. He was last seen wearing blue jeans, a red T-shirt and black shoes.

Anyone with information regarding Desmond’s whereabouts is asked to call the Police Incident Room at 352-1919, 351-9991 or 351-9111.

By Lededra Ferguson, The Nassau Guardian

Posted in Headlines

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