The victim and her mother last night. The picture has been altered to protect their identities.
By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Chief Reporter
aturnquest@tribunemedia.net
AN eight-year-old girl is deeply traumatised and her family shattered after she was abducted from her home early yesterday morning.
Distraught loved ones are calling for the immediate activation of the MARCO Alert system.
The eight-year-old’s mother told The Tribune yesterday the man who took her daughter - who is now at home safe - has changed both her and her child irreparably.
“She been crying all night,” the mother, 38, said. “Every time she wake up, she crying. He take my child life, changed her whole life. He change my life because I am a demon now, I’m not human (sic).”
The mother said her daughter described the man as a dark-skinned bald man.
Yesterday police said they were searching for a man in connection with the alleged abduction but also had a man in custody assisting with this incident.
According to police, the man entered the family’s home shortly after 2am on Sunday and abducted the girl - whom they reported was six.
In a report to the media sent at 11.45am, police said the child was discovered walking in the area of Woodlawn Gardens a short time after the abduction by a passerby and taken to the Wulff Road Police Station.
The Tribune visited the home in Culmerville and interviewed several close relatives and area residents, but has withheld the names of all family members to protect the young girl’s anonymity. The eight-year-old is one of seven children, with the eldest a 22-year-old girl, and the youngest child a two-year-old girl.
The girl’s mother said the abductor knocked on the door of the home and when the eight-year-old and her five-year-old sister answered it.
The man reportedly pushed the five-year-old to the side, and then grabbed the eight-year-old, taking her with him into his car.
“The car speed around, it disappear. Now I don’t know if I’m up or down, if I’m here or there,” the mother said.
She said when she heard the knock, she thought it was her daughter’s friend, adding she and her children chased after the car down the street.
Area residents, said to be present in the yard at the time of the abduction, described the car as a champagne-coloured Jaguar.
“This person knock directly on their . . .door,” said a longtime neighbour.
“They had to have stakeout this place, this person was round here watching, either lingering around here.”
From there, according to her mother, the little girl claimed she was taken to the man’s home and groped her. He then told her to close her eyes, and took her to an area in Woodlawn Gardens of Soldier Road.
“He took her to his house,” her mother said, “and touched her... “
The mother continued: “She was crying, she say she want to go home, and he told her close her eyes you going home right now. When she open her eyes, she don’t see nobody but the street, she was walking up and down.
“She didn’t know where was, she never been that far, she’s only eight-years-old. An angel!” the mother exclaimed through tears. “And an angel in the streets saw that little girl crying, and he took her to the police station.”
She added: “When I give my interview at the police station, and I see my baby walk out, I feel like the heavens just open up.”
While The Tribune was told the young girl was found sometime after 4.30am, police said she was found less than an hour after she was reported missing.
At the family home yesterday, residents and loved ones were visibly shaken by the ordeal and expressed a range of emotions from disbelief and anger to despair.
The 20-year-old sister that the man allegedly asked for, told The Tribune she went out with friends around 11.30pm on Saturday. She received a call that her sister had been taken, and said she was shocked to learn the culprit had asked for her by name.
However, she said she does not believe any of her friends are involved, adding police have already questioned one of her male friends.
“I showed my little sister the picture (of her friend),” she said. “(I asked), ‘is this the person who carry you,’ she say no, I told her ‘baby girl I know you traumatised, is this the person who carry you,’ she say no. Where she was so scared I never see her like that, she was shaking. She was crying.”
Residents and loved ones said the ordeal evoked the memory of Marco Archer’s abduction and killing in 2011.
“Me and Marco Archer was supposed to be the same age right now,” the 20-year-old sister said. “He was in grade six when they take his life. You think I want to watch my sister life get take away just like a little boy who I used to know?”
She continued: “That’s all what was in my head, saying, oh God guide and protect her. If they have her bring her back home. This person had to be watching…plenty males is be around here walking but we been around here five, six years and never nothing like this. We have boyfriend and girlfriend drama, but not this.”
A neighbour said: “We need to impose this (MARCO Alert system). We need to impose this, we need to enforce, from the two woman incident whether that was prank playing, if they did something like that just to get back at a boyfriend or friend, punish them. We should punish these people. This can’t be like all the other things they sweep under the rug.”
The neighbour was referring to an incident in February when a three-year-old boy was abducted and then left frightened and alone outside a Fox Hill washhouse several hours later, sparking a manhunt for two women believed to be the assailants.
Comments
Chucky 5 years, 1 month ago
when will they ever stop using the stupid phrase "A man is currently in custody assisting police with their investigation"
I mean really, what is the "man" doing to assist; is he comparing finger prints of suspect, doing their paperwork, sweeping the floor, beating suspects who are being detained..
Learn to use words people
John 5 years, 1 month ago
If he is being questioned and giving police information, then that is assisting them with their investigation. Either he can eventually be charged or released and the police can also determine if he acted with others, who may also be charged, or if he acted alone.
Chucky 5 years, 1 month ago
If you're in custody you are a suspect, not an assistant! It's not a difficult concept to understand. On the other hand, you could be a witness, and be assisting, but then you would not be in custody. The numerous miss uses of words makes us sound dumb as a society.
tell_it_like_it_is 5 years, 1 month ago
These attacks on children are getting out of hand.
What about this stupid alert system already?
ohdrap4 5 years, 1 month ago
copycats
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 1 month ago
Agreed. Some people's minds are already damaged and all they need is a seed.
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 1 month ago
Here we see The Tribune preying on and exploiting the dumb and stupid (the little girl's mother and the police) in order to obtain a news story that it believes will captivate readers and increase its circulation and web page hits. The little girl's mother, the police and The Tribune should all know that the highly sensitive and very private information about this incident that they are so eager to disseminate to the public will leave this little girl (a minor) and her family scarred for life in ways well beyond the traumatizing incident itself. The Tribune's editor and owners should be asking themselves: "What if it were my little girl and family? Would I want all of this information made public even if I were too dumb and stupid to appreciate that the publicity is not in my daughter's or family's interest?"
TheMadHatter 5 years, 1 month ago
Stating the ages of the siblings to too much of a clue.
licks2 5 years, 1 month ago
??????????????????????????????????????????????????. . .what ya talkin bout Willis?? How you get way over there with this story fella??
realfreethinker 5 years, 1 month ago
Why is an eight years and five years old girl answering the door at 2am?
tell_it_like_it_is 5 years, 1 month ago
Yeah, that was weird.
Chucky 5 years, 1 month ago
easy, dis the Bahamas, and you know how our people role......
ohdrap4 5 years, 1 month ago
The ghetto never sleeps
bogart 5 years, 1 month ago
More has ever to be needed in dese areas....More needs to be in just votes....dese Consistency offices needs to get into pore people in understanding....dynamics....understanding...mores...norms....folfways...taboos...alien culture....to bring relief....lil child one of 7 chillrens.....mother anguished.....culprit prowling on Sunday...where da father...??.?...many da yinna highly educated years of broughtupsy.....outside we areas.....trying to understand dis awful situation....more needed by gubbermint to...understand dese family dealings.....challenges.....failure by gubbermint to understand dynamics.....lil or none protecti and unfairness .to .pore people...stressed people.....ripped off by udders ..lack of education...unemployment ....unable to access gubbermint....alientation of foreign persons now having papers to integrate.....etcetc......thank God mother got child back....and courage all strength to assist bestest blessings to bring best to daughter......
sheeprunner12 5 years, 1 month ago
Imagine if we were back in the pre-social media age ............ This would not be a story.
It is clear what the problem is here ....... a 38 year old with 7 children ....... NO home training.
But that is taboo to say ........... SMT
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 1 month ago
Even with the disgust, you're absolutely right.
UserOne 5 years, 1 month ago
Sheeprunner12, the perpetrator is the man who abducted the child, not the mother. Your post is victim blaming.
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 1 month ago
I kinda agree. When you think of it she's a victim of a system perpetrated by men in high places. They could have fixed the economy and education long ago. It profited them not to. See Minnis in 2019 flying to family island people getting them to cheer him for adding more taxes.
joeblow 5 years, 1 month ago
... the child was abducted because SHE, not her mother, answered the door AND the mother let her--- at 2 am!!! The home was not broken into!!!
bahamianson 5 years, 1 month ago
Well, this is unfortunate for the little one and her family. Was the mother forced to have 7 children ?
Jetflt 5 years, 1 month ago
Reafreethinker....got it right. Why is an 8 and a 5 year old answering the door at 2 AM. Better yet - why the hell are they even awake?????? And where is the mother?????? Oh sleeping!!! What a mess!!!
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 1 month ago
This is NOT the mother's fault. Jon Benet was abducted from her home in a wealthy neigbourhood, taken from a married couple who only had 2 kids...and she didn't answer the door.
Islandboy100 5 years, 1 month ago
Bahamians are to slack when it comes to there safety and when you say anything about it you are looked at as if you did something wrong
joeblow 5 years, 1 month ago
This issue of uneducated single women having children until their womb drags on the ground has to be addressed. Especially with contraception being so readily available. It is at the root of all our social ills!
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 1 month ago
This is not the root of all our ills.
Who has an interest in keeping the masses in a system that doesn't work and keeps them poor and uneducated while they take millions from the treasury for their own subdivisions and million dollar homes? That is our problem, corruption. A single mother with 7 children is a symtom of the problem.
This man was clearly watching this family. If he didn't grab her at the house he would have tried while she was going to school or anywhere else.
joeblow 5 years, 1 month ago
... single parent homes, especially ones with multiple children generally do not have structure. Therefore children cannot and do not learn the values needed to become civic minded citizens. Single parents usually cannot properly police their children, so discipline is usually lacking and is replaced with abuse! Even though education is free the importance of it is not generally stressed by these parents so abused children pass thorough an educational system without getting an education. Most of these parents do not read, so they cannot expand their children's view of the world making them myopic and ignorant. The lack of discipline and a strong moral base MUST cause people to be raised who will do what it takes to survive. They tend to become callous and hardened which sums up most of the problems we have in this country, hence my previous comment about it being a root cause. Did I miss anything? Corrupt politicians have no bearing on what goes on in my house and how MY children are being raised! Willing to bet that's probably true in your house too!
sheeprunner12 5 years, 1 month ago
Soooooooo, don't you think the mother has an idea of who this "abducter" is??? ............. Too many family secrets that the Police is forced to deal with ............. SMH
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