Joy as baby’s back
Published:Friday | December 11, 2020 | 12:16 AMOlivia Brown and Hopeton Bucknor/Gleaner Writers
WESTERN BUREAU:
As joy over the recovery of 18-month-old Akelia Patten reverberated from a remote north Clarendon district to the city streets of Montego Bay, a clear motive has not emerged despite family claims that a soured romantic relationship may have been at the root of the dramatic gunpoint abduction.
Angela Patten, the grandmother of Akelia ‘Paris’ Patten, breathed a sigh of relief following news that her granddaughter had been found after an intensive police investigation over a heart-stopping 72 hours.
She believes that the case turned on the power of prayer and her belief in divine deliverance.
“I am a praying mother. It’s been a lot of pressure on me ‘cause I cry go and I cry come,” Patten told The Gleaner from her home in the rural Clarendon community of Desire in James Hill.
Patten, 51, said that Akelia, the youngest of her son’s three children, had been spending time at the Clarendon home and left for St James on Sunday – the day before she was abducted. She said that she broke down in tears when she saw the picture of the missing toddler had gone viral on Wednesday.
Akelia, who was snatched from her mother’s arms by two gunmen on Humber Avenue Monday morning, is now back home with her family after she was dropped off at the Fairview Shopping Centre in Montego Bay on Thursday.
Akelia’s mother, Kia, was jubilant after the child returned to her embrace after being cleared of harm in a medical examination.
“I was overjoyed when I got the news that my child was returned. I was overjoyed, and now I have her in my custody,” the mother said before ending the call.
The police are still grappling with the motive for the babysnatching and have steered clear of public comment as the investigations continue. Persons close to the investigation disclosed, however, that the mother is fearful of reprisal.
But Angela Patten is convinced that the abduction is linked to the frayed relationship between her son, Akeen, and an ex-lover, that has plunged the family in turmoil for years.
“She text me the Monday morning and say me nah go stop cry ‘cause before the week finish, she a go make me bury a body. [Last] Friday, she text me and say if she cyaa ketch Akeen, she a go kill one a him pickney,” said Patten, showing a WhatsApp thread of disturbing running commentary.
“... Sometimes she will send message that me must pray fi har cause she wah come out this witchcraft thing that she doing. She say she wah stop and cyaa stop,” she added.
However, police sources revealed to The Gleaner on Thursday night that that suspect was questioned and released because of lack of evidence. The father has also been questioned, it has been revealed.
According to reports, shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday, the police and the mother, who resides between Clarendon and St James, got an anonymous tip that the child had been left outside a medical facility at the Fairview shopping complex.
When the police went to the location, the child was handed over by an individual who had spotted the child unattended and also raised an alarm.
Three days earlier, the 26-year-old mother received a telephone call informing her that she should bring the child to a medical facility in downtown Montego Bay for a check-up.
While walking along Humber Avenue about 10:30 a.m., a black 2010 Toyota Voxy bus drove up beside her and two men armed with handguns jumped out and took the child at gunpoint.
“We would have gotten information that the child was dropped off at a medical facility at Fairview this morning, and an operation was carried out at the location, which led to the recovery of the child,” a police officer told The Gleaner.
“The child was taken to hospital and examined and the result showed that she appeared to be in good health, so she was returned to her mother.”