By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

POLICE have released a photo of the car reportedly used in the recent spate of child abductions in New Providence.

Officers are searching for a silver/champagne-coloured Nissan Tiida. The car has black tints on its front and rear windows and the last two digits on the license plate are "35".

Police have also released a sketch of a woman who is wanted in connection with the abductions. In the photo, the woman is depicted as wearing a bonnet over her hair and dark glasses.

Since February 16, there have been six confirmed cases of child abductions. The youngest victim is three years old and the eldest, 10.

Five of these incidents involved boys and alleged female perpetrators. All the children were found unharmed within hours of being taken.

Commissioner of Police Anthony Ferguson addressed the situation on Thursday, saying police are following good leads and suggesting the situation was under control.

As he moved to quell concerns, the commissioner also seemed to downplay the frequency and severity of the issue, telling reporters that not all of the incidents reported were actually considered kidnappings.

He said as far as police were concerned only three of the cases fell into this category and were being looked at seriously. However, he did not specify which cases were ruled out as abductions.

Nonetheless, he said, police were following significant leads.

“Let me say straight out the crack of the gun, the Bahamian people can be assured that we have this situation under hand,” Commissioner Ferguson said Thursday.

“I was advised this morning by the assistant commissioner of crime management, who, along with his team, is actively investigating this matter. They are following significant leads and we will continue to bring these investigations to closure.”

“But I will say all of the incidents are not categorised as kidnapping and so about three of those are matters that we’re looking seriously at.

“One of the matters involving where a family member came home and met the child at home by their self and they took them at that location.

“So the Bahamian people need not be in any state of panic. The Royal Bahamas Police Force, along with members of the public, is actively involved in this matter and so I expect pretty shortly we should be able to bring some resolution to this situation.”

However, last Sunday Inspector Leonardo Burrows told The Tribune police did not have leads and were challenged with getting people to come forward with information that could lead to the arrest of the person responsible for the abduction of three boys who were taken and returned last Thursday, March 7.

Then, police initially reported that two boys, ages eight and 10, were abducted from the Kool Acres area of eastern New Providence.

However, the next day, Chief Superintendent Solomon Cash confirmed that three boys were taken: two eight-year-olds and a ten-year-old.

The boys were walking on Kool Acres Road in eastern New Providence when “they were picked up by a female who was the lone occupant” of a dark coloured vehicle, police said.

CSP Cash said last Friday: “What actually happened is that three kids were on their way home from school, a car pulled up alongside them asking them if they wished for a ride.

“After they refused the ride, the lady insisted that she would give them a ride. The three kids, they got in the vehicle, when they got near the Haitian Village, the lady allowed two of the boys out and she kept one.”

CSP Cash said police believe the boys are family members. The two eight-year-olds were initially dropped off by a Haitian village in the vicinity of Seabreeze and Joe Farrington Road.

The ten-year-old was dropped off later by the city dump. The boys were gone for roughly two hours, CSP Cash said.

The day before, March 6, eight-year-old Tyvon Deveaux was abducted by a lone female driver in a silver-coloured Japanese-model vehicle. He was later dropped off by the entrance to the dump on Tonique Williams Darling Highway.

On February 16, three-year-old Shavar Bain was abducted from outside his home and then left frightened and alone outside a Fox Hill washhouse several hours later, sparking a manhunt for two women believed to be the abductors.

On March 3, an eight-year-old girl was abducted from her home by an alleged male perpetrator. She was discovered walking in the area of Woodlawn Gardens a short time after the abduction by a passer-by and taken to the Wulff Road Police Station.