The Hunters Search and Rescue Team joined efforts in Tobago on Thursday to locate missing two-year-old Angelo Tobias.
Together with the Tobago Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) and the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), a different strategy was employed in an attempt to locate the child who disappeared from his mother’s home in Goodwood on Monday night.
Head of the HSRT, Captain Vallence Rambharat, said they coordinated with TEMA.
“After analysing everything with TEMA, we deployed an action plan that is coastal patrols and to partner with them with their drones,their marine patrol vessel, and what we took up responsibility for was to take care of the coastline.”
This involved searches along rocky cliffs and in between the rugged shoreline.
Meanwhile, the Tobago Marine Safety and Security Services, led by Alvin Douglas, combed the sea.
Conditions were slightly better than previous days, though still rough, with lots of sargassum seaweed complicating efforts.
Little Angelo disappeared from his home, located 200 metres away from the rocky shoreline.
There were several sightings of a small body in the water early Tuesday morning, but it disappeared under the turbulent waves before it could be retrieved.
While some doubt has been cast on that account, Captain Rambharat believes it is true.
“There were reported sightings, and I came away, we came away, with the impression that those sightings were highly probable.”
Mr. Rambharat said the area is known to experience changing tides several times a day and, as a result, his team is focusing its shoreline searches in close vicinity to the missing toddler’s home.
“We have to be continuously doing this until we can try and achieve some closure for Angelo.”
He also shared that the TTPS also continued combing the area around the home in search of clues.
“We have the experience, we understand this part of search and rescue operations, and we’re bringing every bit of experience to it because the island is taken up with this and we want to achieve closure.”
The mystery surrounding the circumstances that led to the disappearance of little Angelo continues.
Police are still piecing together the events leading to Angelo’s disappearance. However, the lead investigator, Acting Assistant Superintendent of Police Mahalia Bacchus, assured that the TTPS will not give up.
The family and community of Goodwood remain anxious, hoping for definitive answers soon.