Seventh person detained as search for Angelo intensifies

A mas­sive, mul­ti-agency search is con­tin­u­ing across To­ba­go for two-year-old An­ge­lo To­bias Plaza, who went miss­ing from his Good­wood home. The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) con­firmed that sev­en peo­ple are cur­rent­ly in cus­tody as law en­force­ment in­ten­si­fies its ef­forts to lo­cate the tod­dler.

De­spite around-the-clock op­er­a­tions, in­ves­ti­ga­tors have yet to find a break­through. Of­fi­cers pre­vi­ous­ly tar­get­ed the Mt. St. George dump and parts of Dam Road, but po­lice re­port­ed that those sweeps "re­sult­ed in noth­ing of ev­i­den­tial val­ue be­ing found." The search grid has now shift­ed to­ward the Pig Farm Road dis­trict, where teams are combed through dense ar­eas.

The dis­ap­pear­ance has trig­gered an ex­ten­sive mo­bi­liza­tion of spe­cial­ized re­sources. Along­side ground search teams, per­son­nel from the Cy­ber Unit have been de­ployed to as­sist in the op­er­a­tion. The spe­cial­ized tech of­fi­cers "have been tasked with analysing elec­tron­ic de­vices seized as part of the in­ves­ti­ga­tions" to un­cov­er po­ten­tial clues re­gard­ing the child's where­abouts.

The TTPS em­pha­sized that the op­er­a­tion is far from a so­lo ef­fort, de­scrib­ing it as a "mul­ti-agency ef­fort." The re­sponse in­cludes the Spe­cial Vic­tims De­part­ment, the To­ba­go Di­vi­sion Gang Unit, the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions, the To­ba­go Di­vi­sion­al Task Force, the Ca­nine Unit, and the Crim­i­nal Records Of­fice. Lo­cal vol­un­teer and emer­gency groups, in­clud­ing the To­ba­go Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency and the Hunters Search and Res­cue Team, are al­so as­sist­ing on the ground.

As pub­lic anx­i­ety grows, po­lice of­fi­cials are urg­ing pa­tience and cau­tion, re­mind­ing cit­i­zens of the del­i­cate na­ture of the case. "We em­pha­sise that this is a high­ly sen­si­tive and ac­tive in­ves­ti­ga­tion," a TTPS spokesper­son stat­ed. "The TTPS re­mains com­mit­ted to con­duct­ing its work with the ut­most pro­fes­sion­al­ism, fair­ness, and re­spect for the con­sti­tu­tion­al rights of all par­ties in­volved."

Au­thor­i­ties al­so not­ed they are "mind­ful of our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate with the pub­lic in a mea­sured and re­spon­si­ble man­ner," promis­ing to re­lease up­dates as soon as in­for­ma­tion can be ap­pro­pri­ate­ly dis­closed.

Time is of the essence, and law en­force­ment is lean­ing heav­i­ly on the pub­lic for any leads that could bring To­bias home safe­ly. "The TTPS con­tin­ues to ap­peal to the pub­lic for in­for­ma­tion that may as­sist in lo­cat­ing An­ge­lo To­bias," of­fi­cials urged.

Any­one with in­for­ma­tion on To­bias's where­abouts is asked to im­me­di­ate­ly con­tact the Scar­bor­ough Po­lice Sta­tion at 639-1200, or call emer­gency lines at 555, 800-TIPS, or To­ba­go 211.