My 13-y-o is missing, and I know the village is hiding her | Mom seeks help getting daughter home

It has been three and a half months, and so far, all efforts to get her daughter back home have proven futile, not so much because she cannot find her but because persons, she said, have been aiding and harbouring the child instead of sending her home or taking her to the nearest police station.

According to Francis, her troubles began before the child went missing, but that turn of event   exacerbated the situation. “My house got burned down in Spring Village, and I relocated to Portmore, and from me come over here, she nuh stop run back to Spring Village. When I first reported it, they held her and then gave her to me, and she stayed for a week.  She went to the house that I was temporarily staying at and she told them that she was hungry and they gave her money to go get something to eat from the shop. She took the money and go wey,” Francis explained in an interview with Old Harbour News after the Jamaica Constabulary Force issued a missing person advisory of Kimanda on June 27. 

People in Spring Village, she said, are harbouring the child. “The people at Spring Village are not fans of mine, as they say that I’m boasy and gwan like me better than them because me nuh chat to them. People reach out to me on Instagram where they message me and give me the location where they see her,” she continued. “The last time me track har down, she was on the hillside in Spring Village, and me leave Portmore and go see har with a group of girls, and when one of the girls saw me, she shouted ‘See your mother deh! Run!’”

When asked the possible reason Kimanda ran away, Francis shared that in recent years, the teen had grown difficult and resistant to rules and discipline. “She nuh hungry and she nuh naked. Even though our house had burnt down, we nah suffer and we in a good environment now so I believe she just start to follow friend and from she lick head wid company, a so she start operate. Before she took off, one night I was sleeping,” she said. “We were all in a furnished one bedroom. And is like someone shook me out of my deep sleep and I opened my eyes only to see someone moving the curtain. I didn’t react at the same time. I realised it was her moving the curtain and peeping. When I got off the bed and moved behind her, I realised that she was attempting to dig out the lock to get out of the house after two in the morning.” 

Lindo, who attends Spanish Town High, became truant despite her mother’s best efforts to ensure that she not only got to school but got there on time and fully prepared to participate academically. Kimanda’s grades, Francis stated, were average. “She was quiet in the class and if she didn’t know something, she would wait until everybody had gone to then ask the teacher to explain. At home, normally she is quiet. If you don’t go look in the room sometimes, you don’t know that she is there. She would watch TV and would stay by herself, but since she start acquaint herself with the pickney dem in Spring Village, she changed,” Francis said. 

 “Every morning me get up and walk her to the bus stop and put her on the bus. One day her teacher called me to ask what happen to Kimanda. You know my heart jump eena my mouth now. So me sey nothing that I’m aware of. Why? She said because I don’t see her come school about one month now. Me sey wha?!  Me put Kimanda pon d bus every morning; sometimes is me and her tek the bus so we travel together. If me nah nuh money or she ago late, me reach out to the teacher. A so me and the teacher communicate because the school inna Spanish Town, me did kinda fraid and me nuh waa nothing happen her so me always mek the teacher know and she would in turn reply and let me know what time she reach etc. A so she reach out to me to sey she not seeing kimanda.” 

Aside from being absent, it pains her heart to admit it, but her child can be very manipulative and is prone to telling lies. “She lie from she ago primary school but the things she doing now got worse when she reached 12. She go school go tell them sey me nuh give her no lunch money and no breakfast. One of the teachers say ‘no man, she looks too well put together fi har mada nuh give her no breakfast’. So they sent for her little bredda over grade three, and when they separated them and questioned him, they asked what you had for breakfast this morning and he said pancake, orange juice, egg and plantain,” she said. “They then asked did your sister get any and he said yes but she didn’t get orange juice she got hot chocolate instead.  When them carry her in front of her brother and him start talk, she nuh say nutten more. They asked him if his mother gave him money for school and he said yes, she gave us money. When they searched her, she hid her money in her sock at the bottom of her shoes. The teacher said ‘Mommy, I don’t know what you are going to do with this one because she will put you eena problems.’”

Life since March 23 has not been easy emotionally for Francis and the rest of the family, who now reside in Portmore. “She has two young brothers, age 10 and four. Every minute the baby asks for her right through. The big one will come ask me ‘them find har?’Every morning me wake 5 ‘0 clock, and I can’t sleep at night. Me go a me bed one or two and up at five. Me caa sleep and me caa eat. Me not even a taste the food, me stress right out because when dem go tell me sey d lickle girl pregnant is like me eye caa lock. Deep down inna me heart but nuh feel like she pregnant, but the negative things people talk about her and me as her mada, nobody never talk dem thing about me yet, and to know me have a daughter than me caa control and people a talk a bag of negative things about, you have no idea how me feel. Me shame,” the distraught mother said, her voice breaking as she is oveerwhlemed with emotions. 

To avoid more problems, though she misses her child, Francis intends to examine the option of facilitating the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) taking custody of Kimanda. “Me nuh have nuh family member a country fi tek har fi she breeze out, clear her head space and just be introduce to a different, more wholesome environment so then the best place fi har is in a home. Everybody say me fi put her eena home. Nobody nah beg fi har. Me get news say she two months pregnant right now and me have video wid har wid one big man wey dem sey she live wid,” she said. “A me alone haffi a get up and fight fi me pickney, nobody nah help me. Me go Hundred Man Police Station, and me beg and me plead and show dem everything, a so dem put har pon d missing list because all along dem been saying she not missing but if she is not in my presence or at home, then she is missing.” 

When Old Harbour News contacted the Old Harbour Police Station, a senior officer advised that Kimanda had returned home. But returned to who and when, the mother is asking.

According to the Jamaica Constabulary Force a person is classified missing once absent from their home, place of employment, or a frequently visited location for an unusual period of time, under unexplained circumstances, and without reasonable communication.

Kimanda certainly falls into this definition but there remains so many unanswered questions and variables at play under the current situation.