ADJI DESIR - 6 yo (2009) - Collier County, FL

The picture of the smiling boy hangs prominently in Marie Neida and Antal Elant’s Immokalee home.

It’s one of the many daily reminders of what they’ve lost and pray to someday regain.

“I feel that they will find him one day,” said Elant, 42. “Everyday
I go out and I think I will get the call that they’ve found Adji... we
must have patience.”

On Sunday, it will have been a year since the now 7-year-old Adji
Desir was last seen playing outside his grandmother’s house in Farm
Workers Village in Immokalee on Jan. 10, 2009, while his mother was at
work.

What followed was a week-long intensive search by thousands of area
residents, and roughly 300 statewide law enforcement officials — 100 of
which were Collier County deputies — with ATV’s, bloodhounds and boats.
No one found the developmentally-challenged boy, or even a trace of him.

Since then, Collier County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Ken Becker said his
agency and FBI agents have continued to follow-up on any tips as to
boy’s whereabouts.

For the family, the day Adji went missing started like any other weekend.

Adji spent most of that Saturday with his grandmother Jesula Thebaud, 56, who lived off Grace Court in Farm Workers Village.

The youngster went in and out of her house several times, playing
with neighborhood friends and eating lunch with his grandmother.

However, it wasn’t until Elant, the boy’s stepfather, arrived to
pick up Adji around 5 p.m. that afternoon that the family realized he
was missing.

Neida, 37, didn’t learn her son was missing until she came home from work at midnight and found her family members in tears.

“I’m always on my bed crying, and I pray. I don’t know what more I
can ask the Lord,” said Neida in her Immokalee home Wednesday. “Give me
a chance. Give me my son back.”

But like many missing children’s cases, after the initial influx of
between 400 and 500 tips, the number of leads soon after Adji’s
disappearance began to wane.

Never really the same

On Wednesday, Farm Workers Village residents recalled the emotions
they felt when they learned one of their own had gone missing a year
ago.

“I don’t let him play outside anymore,” said 8-year village resident
Oralia Mendez, 29, referring to her 7-year-old son. “It’s different.”

Mendez said she remembered the feeling of dread when she found out
Adji was missing. Her son, Alejandro, who was friends with Adji,
remains scared of being snatched himself.

Changes have been subtle over the past year, said Roberta Peña, but
the biggest difference in the community has been that parents have
stepped up their vigilance.

“Parents are more cautious,” said Peña, returning from walking her
8-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter to Village Oaks Elementary.

She said Adji’s disappearance made her reconsider when and where her
kids could play, because her home is near the main road that leads “in
and out” of Farm Workers Village.

“It’s scary because a car could stop, take a child and be gone before you realized which car took your kid,” Peña said.

Peña said her initial reaction was utter disbelief when she heard a child in her neighborhood was missing last year.

“To this day we can’t believe it,” she said. “You know evil exists,
but you don’t expect it near home. You say to yourself, ‘In our calm
community? Where our kids played and could go anywhere while still
feeling safe?’”

It’s not like that anymore.

“Kids don’t go out on their own anymore,” said Peña. “You don’t even
see kids walking on their own to school. They walk in groups.”

In addition to changing the village, Adji’s disappearance also
garnered national attention and was featured on America’s Most Wanted
in January, February and most recently on Dec. 5.

He was also one of six missing children appearing on the cover of
People magazine’s “Vanished Without a Trace: Heartbreak & Hope,”
issue in November, which featured the stories of young people who
disappeared in 2009.

In addition with the help of the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, Adji’s photo was featured on national direct-mail
advertising fliers distributed to 75 million homes across the United
States from Nov. 8 through Dec. 13.

Law enforcement officials said that thanks to the mailing campaign
and the People magazine article, 40 to 50 tips came in, but none led to
Adji.

With fliers containing Adji’s information still hanging across many
businesses in Collier County and nationwide, Becker said he believes
the one tip that will lead to Adji is still out there.

“We need people to come forward and let those facts be known,” he
said. “I have to believe someone in the community knows something.”

A family copes

Mornings at Adji’s home are busy these days.

Eight months ago, Neida and Elant welcomed a baby girl, who they named Adjiani in honor of her missing brother.

Elant takes care of rambunctious Adjiani, while Neida works as a
certified nursing assistant during the day in Naples. They trade off in
the afternoon, when Elant heads to work at a Naples eatery.

The continued support from the community and law enforcement officials has been very appreciated by the family.

But the disappearance has taken an immense emotional and physical toll on everyone, Neida said.

Thebaud no longer lives in Farm Workers Village, and has recently
moved into the couple’s home after spending 12 days in the hospital
with kidney problems.

As for herself, Neida said depression and stress plagued her for months, but that she is working through it for her family.

“Everyday, every night, every second I dream and think of where I
can find Adji,” said Neida. “Now the Lord gave me Adjiani. I have to
take care of her and keep her safe.”

However, the pain of her missing first-born has not dulled.

“My pain over Adji is never, never gone,” she said.

Although Adji is still missing, Elant said hope is not gone.

It’s a wish fervently shared by his wife.

“I hope that he will come back,” she said.

Adji Desir - Where Are You? - It’s Been a Year Now

Posted on January 9th, 2010

As a mother and grandmother myself I find this really hard to write but for the sake of a missing child I am doing it. Little Adji Desir started his day out on January 10, 2009 just like any other Saturday. He was at his grandmother’s home, and he was able to play outside with his friends. The one thing I know he didn’t expect, nor did his family was that he would disappear and no one in his family would see or hear from him again, at least not for a year so far. Tomorrow, January 10, 2010 will make a year that little Adji has been gone. No word, no sign and no news whatsoever about this little now 7 year old boy.
Now Adji’s mother, Marie Neida and his step-father Antal Elant sit by patiently waiting on any word from the police department telling them they have found Adji. They proudly have his smiling face in a picture hanging in there home in Immokalee Fla. as they grieve for this child.
About 300 officers searched the area with ATV’s, bloodhounds and boats only to come up with nothing, not even a trace of the child. Adji’s mother was pregnant when he disappeared so the stress on her has been rough. She did deliver a baby girl that she named Adjiani in honor of her missing brother.
The neighborhood where Adji went missing at in Farm Worker’s Village have mostly all become more aware of the dangers it is to leave their children out alone now.
Oralia Mendez says she doesn’t let her 7 year old play outside anymore saying it is different now. She says she is afraid he could be snatched too
Roberta Pena says over the past year the parents in their community have stepped up their vigilance. “Parents are more cautious,” said Pena as she had just returned from walking her 8 yr old son and 11 yr old daughter to school. “It’s scary because a car could stop, take a child and be gone before you realized which car took your kid,” Pena said.
Collier County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Ken Becker said his agency and FBI agents continue to follow-up on any tips they receive as to the boy’s whereabouts. Once Adji was featured on America’s Most Wanted in January, February and again on December 5 and then in People’s magazine’s “Vanished Without a Trace: Heartbreak & Hope” in November, and also with the help of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as they sent Adji’s picture out on direct mailing advertising fliers, officials received 40 to 50 more tips but unfortunately none led them any closer to finding Adji.
Becker still believes that one day a tip will come in that will lead them to Adji. “We need people to come forward and let those facts be known,” said Becker. “I have to believe someone in the community knows something.”
All children are special but little Adji seems to have touched my heart. He is described as 3 ft tall and he weighed about 45 lbs when he disappeared. He has black hair and brown eyes. Adji is also developmentally disabled and only functions at the level of a 2 year old. He can only speak about 5 words in English. He understands Creole but he can’t speak it. He does know his name though when it is called out.
I don’t want this missing child case to go cold. I want to see him found. By keeping his name out here as well as the others we have been reporting on that are still missing which are Haleigh Cummings, Hassani Campbell, Masaraha Ross (who remains missing with her Mom) and Marc Anthony Bookal we are hoping it will help find them so they can be returned safely home. Please continue your prayers for them and their family’s. Let’s not forget the ones that have been murdered also. We need to pray for their family’s as well.
I plan to light a candle and burn it tomorrow in memory of little Adji. He shouldn’t be forgotten.
God Bless you all for caring!
Jan Barrett
As a favor to our readers I am posting these web sites. Please consider signing these petitions. Something has got to be done to protect the future of the world which is our children:
Stop the abuse and murder of the children in the U.S.
[url=http://www.thepetitionsite.com/16/stop-the-abuse-and-murder-of-the-children-in-the-us]http://www.thepetitionsite.com/16/stop-the-abuse-and-murder-of-the-children-in-the-us[/url]

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It’s a plea Marie Neida has been making for two years.

“Please, I ask everyone … Please give me your help! Help me find
Adji,” Neida said in soft voice. “I hope the police can find Adji.
Please help me find my son.”

Two years after Adji Desir went missing from his grandmother’s Farm
Workers Village home, investigators are no closer to finding out what
happened to the autistic child.

However, Adji’s family, law enforcement officials and Immokalee
residents all hold out hope that the now 8-year-old will come home soon.

On Monday, it will have been two years since Adji was last seen
playing outside his grandmother’s house in Farm Workers Village in
Immokalee on Jan. 10, 2009, while his mother was at work.

People from law enforcement and other agencies around Florida —
including hundreds of Collier deputies — joined in an intensive
week-long search with ATVs, bloodhounds and boats. No one found the
developmentally challenged boy, or even a trace of him.

Collier County sheriff’s investigators fielded hundreds of tips in
the weeks after Adji’s disappearance, but the number of tips dwindled by
fall 2009.

“Any long-term investigation obviously has its ups and downs,” Collier County sheriff’s Sgt. Ken Becker said Friday.

National exposure of the case helped generate dozens of new leads
after Adji was featured on the cover of the November 2009 issue of
People magazine, which profiled the cases of six children who went
missing that year.

Adji’s photo and information were featured on national direct mail
advertising fliers distributed to 75 million homes across the United
States in November and December 2009, and his disappearance also was
profiled on CNN’s “Nancy Grace” show and on “America’s Most Wanted.”


Cautious normalcy

On a recent morning, life at Farm Workers Village seemed to have
returned to normal. A mix of older kids, some escorting younger
siblings, headed to Village Oaks Elementary without parental
supervision.

Some parents also made the trek by car or foot, which was the case
for Maria Rios on Thursday morning as she pushed her 3-year-old son,
Alex, in a stroller and walked 5-year-old Noe to school.

A seven-year resident of Farm Workers Village, Rios said she
remembered all the activity after Adji went missing, including that law
enforcement searched homes multiple times hoping to find the boy.

“I felt fear, because I live near the park where he (Adji) used to
play,” said Rios, 32. “I used to take care of my kids, but now I take
care of them more.”

Just north of Farm Workers Village, Ce Bien Haitian Bakery owner
Edrick Paul recalled how his customers reacted to the disappearance.

“They never saw something like that ever happen in this
neighborhood,” said the Immokalee businessman, adding that a child going
missing was something people considered a big-city problem. “But not
here. Not in Immokalee, never ever in Immokalee.”

What troubles him most, Paul said, is that Adji hasn’t turned up.

“The funny thing about it is that no one knows anything about it.
That’s what bothers me,” he said. “I’m surprised that no one saw the
kid. Why does everybody say they don’t know?”

Paul said he believes that someone in the community must know what
happened to Adji, but that they may be afraid to talk to authorities.

If you saw the kid, say something,” he said.


Ongoing mission

Getting community members, who may have hesitated to come forward, to
talk is what Collier sheriff’s officials are hoping to accomplish this
week.

To bring attention to the anniversary of Adji’s disappearance,
detectives, along with agents from the FBI and Florida Department of Law
Enforcement, will be going door-to-door in Farm Workers Village and
handing out fliers Tuesday. They’ll also deliver the fliers to
businesses in Immokalee.

The new fliers feature Adji’s picture and urge anyone who may have
information about his disappearance to be a part of the Triangle of
Trust, a partnership between law enforcement, the community and Adji’s
family.

Sheriff’s officials said the fliers are just another way the agency
is trying to get the word out to the Immokalee community that their
assistance in the ongoing investigation might help bring Adji home.

“Obviously if someone is afraid to come forward it may be because they might have information to find Adji,” Becker said.

Another tool to help will come later this year from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

“At that two-year threshold is when we start working on an age
progression,” center CEO Ernie Allen said. “So fairly soon we will have
hopefully a new image of what Adji looks like today.”


Missing part of your heart

“It’s too hard to describe that pain,” said Neida, 38, while sitting in the family’s living room Friday.
That ache and an 8 ½- by-11 portrait of Adji is one of the many constant reminders Neida has of her missing son.
“My family is always sad. My mother is always sad,” she said.
Neida and her husband, Antal Elant, 43, continue to care for
19-month-old Adjiani, who was named in honor of her missing brother. The
couple said their daughter helps bring joy to their lives, but it
doesn’t take away from the pain that their son isn’t home.
“Every two to three weeks he (Sgt. Becker) passes to visit us, talk
with us, which gives us the feeling that they are still working on the
case,” Elant said.
Elant still has faith that, after two years, investigators will find Adji and he will finally come home.

Fast facts

■ The Collier County Sheriff’s Office has produced a video about the
case and the agency is asking that everyone post it to their blogs,
Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites and e-mail the link
to everyone in their address book. The video titled “Help us Find Adji”
can be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=tltX9-Vykco
Anyone with information on Adji’s whereabouts is asked to call the
Collier County Sheriff’s Office at (239) 252-9300, or if you wish to
remain anonymous call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780- TIPS (8477).
For more information on the Adji Desir case visit the Collier Sheriff’s website www.colliersheriff.org.

■ To learn more of the history behind Adji’s disappearance visit The
Naples Daily News’ page dedicated to the search
www.naplesnews.com/news/adji-desir/

■ To learn more about the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children visit www.missingkids.com.

Two years after Adji Desir's disappearance, police and his family continue to search for the autistic boy.Officials
said they are no closer to finding out what happened to Desir. He was
last seen playing outside his grandmother's Farm Workers Village home on
Jan. 10, 2009, when he was 6.Collier County sheriff's
investigators fielded hundreds of tips after the boy's disappearance.
But no trace of him has been found.
The boy's mother, 38-year-old Marie Neida, still holds hope that the family will someday get answers.Police hope that the focus on the two-year anniversary of Desir's disappearance will result in clues that will solve the case.

Two years after his disappearance, Collier County
deputies are still searching for Adji Desir. Deputies and volunteers
from The Fireball Run handed out new fliers hoping to spark new leads in
the case.
"We drive across the country and look for missing children," said Robert Fox of The Fireball Run.
Fox and members of the group pass out fliers for missing children as they travel from state to state.
"If we can do one good thing - find one child across the state- we've done our job," said Fox.
They have done more than that. They have aided in the recovery of 37 children.
They hope Adji is number 38.
"There's always a chance," said Fox.
Fox and his crew joined the search as Collier
County deputies renewed their own efforts. They spent Tuesday passing
out hundreds of new fliers.
"Hopefully someone will get a look at a flyer and
realize they've got information that will help bring him home," said
Sergeant Ken Becker.
Despite 2400 tips, Adji is still missing.
"We're not any closer today than we were January 10, 2009," said Becker.
Becker has regular contact with Adji's family to keep them updated on the progress of the case.
"As a parent myself, I could not imagine going to
sleep at night not knowing where my children are at. She's been doing it
for two years now," said Becker.
Becker says Collier County includes many different cultures.
"A lot of them, if they grew up outside the US, may not have a lot of trust in law enforcement," said Becker.
The sheriff's office is trying to build a Triangle
of Trust with residents to encourage them to come forward with
information that could finally bring Adji home.

A young disabled black boy, Adji Desir, has been missing for more than
two years and his case remains unsolved. Please help us get the word
out by distributing this story widely.
Adji Desir has been missing
from outside his grandmother’s residence in Immokalee, Florida, since
Saturday, January 10, 2009. Adji reportedly went outside to play with
neighborhood kids after dinner. He was reported missing a little while
later and his whereabouts remain unknown. Adji is of Haitian descent and
was last seen wearing a blue and yellow t-shirt, blue and yellow
shorts, and black and gray sneakers. He is mentally handicapped and
functions at a two-year-old level. He is non-verbal, has a very limited
vocabulary, and only understands Creole.
Because of the length of
time Adji has been missing, an aged-progressed picture (e.g. in green
shirt) and an original photo of him back are provided.
This little
boy lived with his mother and stepfather at the time he disappeared.
Authorities searched the immediate area and found no clues and while his
biological father resides in Haiti, no evidence suggests he has left
the United States. None of Desir’s family members are considered
suspects. But the case has grown cold and no new leads have surfaced, so
that’s why spreading Adji’s image around the web may help yield more
clues.
The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading
to his recovery. Anyone with any information is urged to call the
Collier County Sheriff’s Office at 239-774-4434

http://thefreshxpress.com/2011/06/adji-desir-disabled-black-boy-is-missing/

IMMOKALEE, Fla.- It's been three years to the day that a six-year old Immokalee boy vanished. Still no one knows how Adji Desir disappeared, but his family and law enforcement still hold out hope.

Jesula Lebaud is still sickened by the memory of her grandson vanishing from her own front yard.

"Today, me...not good. Yesterday, not good," Lebaud said Tuesday.

Little Adji Desir disappeared from Immokalee's Farm Worker's Village on January 10th, 2009. Despite three years of searching, investigators say they're no closer to finding Adji, then the very first day he went missing.

"We don't have any idea what happened to Adji. We looked into every lead that came in. We checked the dumps, that would have been a recovery. We are continuing our investigation as if Adji's out there safe somewhere, and we just need to find him and bring him home," Collier County Sheriff's Office's Sgt. Ken Becker said Tuesday.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is now releasing a new picture of what they think Adji would look like, three years later.

"Obviously, six-year old children, by the time they're nine or ten years old, there's major changes there," Becker said.

Investigators hope the new description will rekindle interest in the case. Over the course of the investigation, they've looked into over 2,400 leads. Still, they say the case isn't closed.

"We're three years into it now, but we're continuing with that mission with hopes that at some point, we'll get the lead that'll bring Adji home," Becker said.

It's a hope Adji's grandmother clings to each day.

"God help me, Adji coming back?" Lebaud said Tuesday.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Collier County Sheriff's Office at 239-252-9300 or leave an anonymous tip with Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS.

_http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2012-01-10/Family-of-missing-Immokalee-boy-hold-out-hope-for-his-return