Sleepless nights for parents as 2-y-o remains missing

"Please bring back mi baby, mi a beg! Please, that's all mi need; mi just need back mi baby."

That's the plea of 24-year-old Anshelle Trought, whose two-year-old son Roshaun English has been missing for about a week.

Little Roshaun, fondly called 'Poppy', went missing from his yard in Red Ground, Old Harbour, St Catherine, last Wednesday about 5 p.m. after his mother stepped inside their house to grab items for his bath.

"Normally when mi fi bathe him, mi always tek out him clothes first, tek out him rag and everything. But mi seh, 'Poppy mi fidget yuh stuff them...stay right yah suh, mi soon come,'" Trought explained.

"Less than five minutes time mi come back outside, mi cah find him. Suh mi seh alright, I'm guessing, of course, him a guh deh over mi cousin dem yard...cause normally on a regular day, Poppy would just play in a the water till mi come or guh over mi cousin dem yard and guh play till mi ready."

However, when she realised that her son was not next door, Trought started to panic, and called Roshaun's father, who was also home, to assist in searching for him.

"Wi search every weh; wi search the house, wi check every weh him normally play, and we couldn't find him," Trought said, adding that they then alerted the community members, who all assisted. However, after two hours of searching with no signs of Roshaun, Trought reported him missing to the police.

DARK PLACE

"I was so worried. Him in a him underpants ready fi bathe, rain a fall, the place dark, and mi know him hungry...mi a wonder if him alright. Mi a wonder wah state him inna," Trought told THE STAR, adding that even in the pouring rain, she relentlessly searched for her son until 3 a.m.

Trought is now convinced that someone took her child, and based on where she observed the Jamaica Constabulary Force's canine unit lost Roshaun's scent, she strongly believes that whoever took him knows the area well.

"The dogs actually reach way up in a di bushes. So I'm thinking that it had to be someone in the area, because the bushes can drop yuh out on the main road. But yuh afi know the area," Trought explained. "Him (Roshaun) nah guh wid nubody weh him nuh know, and the fact seh we live in a lane, him nah pass the shop weh deh there fi guh out on the main road. And mi have family around here, and dem nah mek him pass fi guh pan nuh main road."

Since her son went missing, Trought, who is also the mother of a four-month-old boy, has found it difficult to cope. She told THE STAR that she has not been able to eat or sleep.

"Mi nuh think mi can live without mi baby. The only thing that's keeping me alive right now a mi four-month-old," Trought said.

"If mi put a piece a food a mi mouth, mi a wonder if him a eat. Wah kinda state him inna? Every minute mi cry, every second a di day mi cry, mi cah duh nothing. Mi cah concentrate. Mi keep on a think 'bout wah condition him inna, if him alright."

She added that Roshaun's father is also having a difficult time, and breaks down every day.

"The two a dem did have a bond more than how me and Roshaun did have a bond, because every morning him wake up him seh 'Daddy, mi wah mi tea. Daddy, mi want mi Cocomelon (children's YouTube channel), and every night them have to sleep and hug up. Suh it hard. Him a guh days now and nuh hug up him baby fi sleep," Trought said.