Just over a week ago on May 30, an otherwise uneventful Friday evening took an ominous turn when 13-year-old Serena Cox disappeared from her Beausejour home at seven pm. The guardian of the teen is still frantically searching for the young woman who was placed under the family’s temporary protection after her mother’s death earlier this year.
“We haven’t seen her, we have no idea where she is. She’s been under my mom’s care since April so we’re really not sure who her friends are. We’ve notified her family and they too are not sure where she is. She just left the house.”
They waited a few hours for Cox to appear, but after failing to hear from her they turned the case over to the Gros Islet police station at nine am on Saturday.
“We were hoping that we would see her return to the house that evening but she never did. They said that they were going to do their investigation and that they would have gotten back to us. That’s what they spoke to my mother about but we heard nothing on Saturday so we had to go back to them Saturday evening and we’ve been calling and going there everyday.”
The lack of a response from the RSLPF has been frustrating for the family.
“Nobody has ever called me to give me any update, although they have been promising that if any developments, they would call me. Nothing. They’ve given us no sort of feedback at all. I mean we told them about her friends, etc. We did give them some “leads”. But then they’ve not told us whether they’ve done any interviews, any surveillance, nothing at all. We’re assuming they’re not doing anything since we’re not hearing anything from their end.”
Since the story broke, comments from the public have ranged from genuine sympathy to skepticism about Cox’s whereabouts. The negative chatter is not uncommon, stemming from years of runaways resurfacing unharmed after short trysts. The guardian is convinced that the stigma is affecting Cox’s case and the tepid police reaction.
“They treat it as a runaway case and they’re not doing anything.”
Despite the resistance, the family is exhausting every avenue to extract any available information which might lead them to the missing teen.
“The reason that we’ve gone to the media is we’re hoping that . . . if she is out there with somebody, they’ll tell us she is unharmed and that she is not being held against her will. That she will in fact say she’s okay. And whoever would have seen her in the public, get her to me.”
And if perchance Serena is listening, there is a message for her as well.
“Please contact someone in the family. If she doesn’t want to do that she could contact someone at human services but let someone know. Even if it is the counselor or the principal at her school, she could let somebody know that she is okay.”
The guardian agreed to this interview on the condition of anonymity because of the toll it has been taking on her own mother, Cox’s official keeper.
“It’s really been hard on her. She is sickened by the whole thing. She needs a little bit of privacy. She‘s not dealing well with the publicity at all.”
This family needs your help. If anyone has seen Serena Cox, please call
486-7879 or your nearest police station. Cox is five feet tall and light skinned, with a scar on the right side of her forehead. She was last seen wearing red and white pajama shorts with a white camisole.
