By Shirley Thomas

DEEPLY distraught, Ms. Leslyn Douglas of South Ruimveldt Park is appealing to anyone in the USA who has information regarding the whereabouts of her 23-year-old son Eric Joseph to contact the New York Police; his father Eric Joseph (Snr) on phone number (347) 693-6859; his grandmother on phone number (917) 822-5048; or his aunt on phone number (516) 204-3663.

This mother lives in Guyana, but her son is missing in New York. A missing person’s report for Eric Joseph has been placed on Facebook, and his photograph has been displayed therein. Moreover, a live interview was aired on Channel 12 Brooklyn in connection with the man’s disappearance.

However, based on information Joseph’s relatives received from a Guyanese friend who claims to have seen him the day before the report came out, he no longer bears close resemblance to what he looked like in the past. The friend claims he saw Joseph last Monday at J’Ouvert in Eastern Parkway, New York, but he was at the time unaware that Joseph was considered missing.

The friend said Joseph was in the company of a young woman, appeared not to be the person he is known to be, and certainly did not look happy.

“He appeared to have lost a lot of weight, and was looking dazed,” the friend recalled.

The missing person’s bulletin appeared on Facebook the following day, Tuesday, but by then the friend had lost track of Joseph, a US citizen who lives with his father at 817 East 45th Street, Brooklyn, New York.

Joseph’s father initially seemed unaware that his son was missing from the home. His mother, who would regularly speak with him on the phone, claims to have last had a conversation with him on July 31st. The terrified woman claims that following that last conversation, she regularly tried phoning her son, but all calls would go unanswered. She made this known to his father as she enquired about her son’s whereabouts, but she thinks the father seems not to have taken it seriously, because he would only say that Eric must be having fun, and would return home when he is ready.

However, his paternal aunt, who lives in Long Island and was very close to him, also became worried after neither seeing nor hearing from him, and filed a missing person’s report with the New York Police.

Ms. Douglas recalled that when she last spoke with her son, he told her he was going to visit relatives in Chicago; but no one seems to have seen him lately. Ms. Douglas is appalled that her son would go missing from his father’s home and his father would not be aware.

“That is not like my son! Whenever my son is with me, I always know where he is. If he can’t get home on time, he would call and let me know,” she said forlornly.

And over the last few days, a woman responding to the missing persons’ report has called the senior Joseph’s number to inform that she had seen the young man in the park. However, by the time the father got there, his son had disappeared.

Eric Joseph Jnr. left Guyana on November 3, 2015 to join his father in the United States. He turned 23 the following day, November 4, and would ever since regularly communicate with his mother, until this situation developed. Now having sleepless nights, Ms. Douglas is hoping for the best, and praying she would soon be reunited with her son.