The Counter-Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Unit along with the Guyana Police Force are actively searching for a missing 14-year-old girl.
Erica Lall reportedly went missing from her East Coast Demerara home on Tuesday last.
Reports on social media suggest that she may have been a victim of human trafficking but Coordinator for the TIP Unit, Tanisha Williams-Corbin said they have not been able to confirm this.
“At this time, we are not ruling out any possibilities, we are actively engaged in the search for the child, we are reaching out to the mother in order to be able to get some other information,” Williams-Corbin told the News Room on Saturday.
The News Room understands that the teenager went to visit some friends living nearby on Tuesday afternoon and disappeared. The mother, during an interview on a Facebook Live, revealed that after she realised her daughter was missing, she started searching around the community for her.
The next day – Wednesday- she visited the Beterverwagting Police Station on the East Coast of Demerara and filed a missing person’s report.
The mother claimed that after questioning some neighbours, she learned that her daughter and her friends had travelled to the Soesdyke -Linden, Highway.
But later Wednesday, the mother reported that she received a call from her daughter via a blocked number and the teenager told her to contact the police because she [the mother] might not see her again.
The mother then decided to take it up on herself and go in search of her daughter. She reportedly found her daughter’s sneakers and a piece of her clothing at an undisclosed community on the Linden Highway.
But the TIP coordinator revealed that they only became aware of the situation late Thursday night and contacted the mother on Friday morning. The mother was invited into the Unit’s office to provide more information.
“Unfortunately, she was unable to make it, she indicated that she was already on a search mission on the highway, we asked her to send us a photograph of the child so that we can set up our team,” Williams-Corbin explained.
The Coordinator said they made contact with the police and tried to make contact with the mother to get her exact location.
According to Williams-Corbin, the mother revealed that they were searching at Hairuni, a community on the highway. But when the TIP team arrived, they did not find the search party and could no longer make contact with the mother.
“We tried to make contact with the number, we contacted her via WhatsApp, we contacted her via straight call from the various numbers, we contacted her via SMS, we had some difficulties making contact with her,” Williams-Corbin said.
Meanwhile, the mother also made a report at the Childcare and Protection Agency’s Cornhill Street office. The News Room was told that a childcare officer guided the mother accordingly and went through the standard process with her.
In the meantime, police officers from the East Coast Demarara, East Bank Demerara and Region Ten divisions are working together to locate the missing girl.