Police brief families of missing girls on latest findings

The police have formally informed the families of the three missing girls from Takoradi about their latest finding with regard to the investigations they are conducting into the whereabouts of the girls.

Although the police did not confirm that the bodies they had retrieved through an operation at Kasparov last Friday were those of the missing girls, they said it was important to keep the families posted on the latest updates and reassure them that every effort was being put in to find the missing girls.

Last Saturday, the Western Regional Police Command, led by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr Redeemer Vincent Dedjoe, on behalf of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Police Administration, visited and engaged the families, barely a day after the operation undertaken by a special investigative team from Accra.

“I must say that what we have seen was within the residence of the convict and suspect, Samuel Udoetuk-Willis, and these are human remains, mainly bones and skulls in a cesspit and we have taken custody of them to help our investigations,” he said.

The regional commander, however, was also emphatic in telling the families that “breaking the news to you does not mean we are here to say that those are the remains of our beloved children”.

He also apologised that, instead of the families being the first to know of the latest development, the speed of social and traditional media took over and made it public before the police could reach out to the families.

“The operation was completed quite late in the night and hierarchy had to be briefed first before telling anyone else,” Mr Dedjoe explained.

“We will subject the exhibits to stern examination to establish that those are the children or otherwise and we will need the families to help in that regard as we work towards finding the solution,” he said.

Emotions

The hours of meetings with the families in their respective homes were filled with emotions, as intermittently a family member broke down in tears, unable to control himself or herself on hearing the news.

At the Bentums family house, the strong emotions displayed almost sent the police team into tears, as the mother of Priscilla Blessing Bentum, one of the missing girls, could not contain herself and burst into tears, saying: “No! No! No! What you have found could not be my child. She is alive!”

All the three families received the news with disbelief, as they expressed the hope that their children could still be found alive and remained hopeful that on the next police visit, they would hear the news that the children had been found alive.

Follow further leads & DNA The families said finding the remains of persons whose identity were yet to be established should not prevent the police from following further leads, with the hope of finding the children alive.

They expressed their readiness to help the police in their investigations and also provide that self-replicating material with fundamental and distinctive characteristics or qualities of a member of the family for the deoxyribonucleic acid process, known as the DNA test.

‘My daughter is alive’

Ruth Love Quayson’s mother, Madam Comfort Arhin, said she would not take what the police were saying seriously because as far as she was concerned, her daughter was still alive.

“In December last year, we spoke to my daughter when the kidnappers contacted us and she even spoke to the pastor of our church,” she explained.

“When we handed the phone to the pastor, my daughter said: ‘Sofo’, and today you want to tell me that my daughter is no more? I won’t take that and they should stop saying things like that,” she said in tears.

An uncle of Ruth’s, Mr Amos Kojo Obeng Tawia, said the family still thought that the police could do better and come up with different results and not what they had come up with now.

‘The suspect is dangerous’

“I must say that since the suspect is a dangerous character, the remains found in the cesspit could be those of his other victims whose disappearance is yet to be reported. But as far as we are concerned, the children are alive and they must be found,” he said.

Some members within the communities where the missing girls lived who spoke to the Daily Graphic said they found it difficult to believe what the police had came up with and expressed the hope that the latest update from the police was not a ploy to abandon the search.

Others were of the opinion that since the forensic test would confirm the identities of the remains discovered, the police and an independent team should carry out that exercise as soon as possible for the families to establish the truth.

REGSEC appeals for calm

In a related development, the Western Regional Minister, Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah, has appealed for calm after the police operation and the retrieval of human parts/remains from the backyard of an uncompleted building at Kasparov last Friday.

In a statement, Mr Darko-Mensah, who is also the Chairman of the Western Regional Security Council (REGSEC), commended the police for not relenting in their investigations to unravel the mysterious disappearance of the three girls and urged them to do all they could to help resolve the mystery.

“Above all, the parents, relatives and the public in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis especially are entreated to remain calm and await the outcome of the forensic investigations to be conducted on the found human parts, which must be expedited.

“The co-operation of all with the security agencies, which could lead to the unravelling of the matter, as well as locate the whereabouts of the kidnapped girls, is being highly solicited,” the statement stressed.

Background

Priscilla Blessing Bentum, 21, a third-year student of the University of Education, Winneba, was abducted at Kansaworodo on August 17, 2018; Ruth Love Quayson, 18, a senior high school graduate, was kidnapped at the Butumegyabu Junction on December 4, 2018, while Priscilla Mantebea Koranchie, 15, a student of Sekondi College (SEKCO), was kidnapped near the Nkroful Junction in Takoradi on December 21, 2018.

Following the series of kidnapping of teenage girls in the Takoradi metropolis, Willis was arrested at Kasparov, a suburb of Sekondi/Takoradi, on December 22, 2018 on suspicion of being part of a kidnapping syndicate.

He was charged with kidnapping and remanded in police custody by the Takoradi Circuit Court on December 24, 2018.

On December 30, 2018, he escaped from police cells through the ventilation windows of the cell after using a hacksaw blade to cut the iron rods used to secure the windows.

The police rearrested him on January 3, 2019 in an uncompleted building at Kasparov, close to the place where the human remains were discovered last Friday.