The Judiciary Police is looking for Yeremi Vargas, an eight-year-old boy who disappeared in March of 2007 when he was playing with his cousins, in the street, a few meters away from his grandparent’s house, in Vecindario, in the Canary Islands. A photo of the boy was already placed in the missing person’s online page of the Judiciary Police, asking for the collaboration of persons who eventually have seen him in national territory. According to the PJ, informations received by the Spanish authorities indicate the possibility of Yeremi “to have been a seen” in the North of Portugal, six months after his disappearance. A source of the PJ told 24horas that this was a lead which placed the boy in the Minho Region and which was investigated, with no success. On the other hand, added the same source, the placing of the photo in the Internet was done after a solicitation done by the Spanish Police and by Europol.

Yeremi Vargas disappeared in a matter of minutes. A few minutes went by after 13h30 on the 10th of March, when the grandmother called the family, which was in the street, near to house, to have lunch. They all entered, including the cousins, except Yeremi, a “cheerful, shy and easily frightened boy” who, moments before, was running and playing before the attentive glance of his grandfather.

“A nightmare without an end”

hundreds of people joined the Spanish authorities and looked for him everywhere. One hour later, the whole device of control was in progress, with the entries and exits in the island being watched attentively. Without success. Yeremi Vargas was never found, for despair of the parents and of the whole family. “This is a nightmare without an end”, says the aunt, Milagros Suárez, guaranteeing without doubts that the child was a victim of a kidnapping. Otherwise, she affirmed, “he would have managed to perfectly arrive at the house”, because he knew well the whole neighbourhood. In this case, as in those of missing children, the leads followed by the police and the suspicions raised to the family have not produced any results, pushing the investigation for a dead end.

False Leads

there have been appearing several false leads and various ‘witness accounts’ that guarantee to have seen the boy, in several places. A 27-year-old man, with criminal record, was detained by the Spanish police after an attempt to pass as the kidnapper, trying to extort six thousand euros from the family to free the child. It was all an attempt to defraud the Vargas family through extortion. Thousands of posters with the photo of Yeremi were spread by all Spain, including a few, paid by the McCanns, in which the boy of the Canary Islands appears side by side with Maddie. The principal suspect is a man with paedophile criminal records, which, a little time before, had tried to kidnap a girl from the island.