Gasparillo mother pleads for help to find missing teen

A mother is pleading for the public's help to find her 16-year-old son who has been missing for a week.

Saleem Thompson, of Caratal Road, Gasparillo, was last seen leaving his home on December 13, shortly after 9 am.

According to a police report, Thompson was wearing a blue t-shirt, blue short pants, and blue slippers.

Calls to his cellphone have been going to voicemail.

His mother Esther Brown told Sunday Newsday that her son would usually walk out the road and go by a friend's home where they would meet up and play football for a few hours before returning home.

“That morning I left home to go in the market and when I returned he was not home. I was not worried at the time as I thought he would have been home in a couple of hours. When I saw night was approaching I called his cellphone and it went straight to voicemail I knew something was wrong.”

Brown said the next day she went to the Gasparillo Police Station and filed a report.

“I have since gone to all his friends' home. But no one has seen or heard from him. I have not been able to sleep these past few nights. My heart is breaking. This is my baby out there somewhere in the world. He is only 16 years.”

Brown said she had been reading about children going missing in the newspaper but never knew that one day it would have hit home.

Thompson who is a form three student of the Marabella South Secondary School is the youngest of four siblings.

“This week I was going to take him shopping for his gifts to choose what he likes. He was really looking forward to it. How can we even celebrate Christmas without him?

Gasparillo Police are investigating.