12-year-old girl goes missing after leaving for aunt’s house

A 12-year-old girl who left her grandmother’s home on Monday morning to go to her aunt’s home which is just five minutes away has gone missing, and her family is desperately trying to find her.
According to her family, 12-year-old Devi Persaud, of Sisters Village, West Bank Demerara (WBD), lives with her 74-year-old grandmother and has been living there since her mother died some four years ago.

Her aunt, Aklema Ali, in an interview with Guyana Times on Wednesday, said that based on what her mother [the child’s grandmother] told her, the child took a bath, got dressed, and told her that she was going over to her house.
She said her mother said she told her granddaughter that her uncle would come to pick her up in the evening since they do not allow her to go home on her own at nights.
“Late in the night, her uncle come over by me and told me that he come to carry her home and I laugh, because I wanted to know what he was talking about. So, I ask him what happened to she. He said that mommy said that Ashley say she left to come by me.”
Ali said after hearing this, several relatives, friends, and neighbours were contacted to find out if they had seen the child, but to no avail.
“I checked around. I did many searches and I am not getting through. I tried to call her phone and it turned off. She comes by me often and we don’t get no problems with her. My mother even said that they didn’t have any argument with her,” the child’s aunt said.
Ali explained that Devi would be attending Patentia Secondary in October after writing the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) exams.
She said the girl’s father lives at Enmore on the East Coast of Demerara, and after she went missing, they made contact with him and he indicated that he received a call from his daughter the same day, asking him if she can visit him.
“He said he was going to work and was in a vehicle, and he said he tell she that he going to work and when he come back he will call her. He said before he cut off the phone, he tell she that she cannot come by he because his place is not safe… he said he tell she that the best for her to be right was by me and her grandmother because of the position he was in,” the woman explained.
After ending the conversation with the child, her father said he made several efforts to contact her again and all the calls went unanswered.
She said it was quite strange that the girl disappeared without a trace, since she and her niece have a close relationship and she would have mentioned to her if something was wrong.
“We never get problems with her. I don’t know what is this that she just escape and nobody ain’t know. I don’t know if somebody come and pick she up; that is why we can’t get a trace. I don’t know nothing more that going on here,” Ali said.
“I went everywhere even the welfare [unit] and I still can’t find my niece. I just want her to come home. I want if anybody know where she is to tell us so that she can just come home.”
The family is currently waiting to review Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) footage in the neighbourhood to uncover any clue about where she went.
Devi Persaud was last seen wearing a black jersey, blue jeans, and black slippers. Anyone with any information on the child’s whereabouts is asked to contact her family on +592-6989552 or the nearest Police Station. (G9)