A baby boy from Broward, Fla. has been missing for 18 months and authorities have just now started searching the home where he was last seen on Friday.
Dontrell Melvin, has been unaccounted for since July 2011, when he was 5 months old. His father, Calvin Melvin, 27, was questioned by the police on the whereabouts of his son and he told police that he left the boy at a North Miami-Dade fire station in July of 2011.
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Britney Sierra, 21, the mother of Dontrell, is telling a different story. She told police that Calvin had left the Hallandale Beach home with Dontrell back in July of 2011 and came back home without him. When she asked where Dontrell was he said that he had taken him to his parents in Pompano Beach so he would have a better life.
In October 2012, Sierra was having “custody issues” with Melvin because he would not tell her where Dontrell was and called the Hallandale Beach police who referred her to the state’s child abuse hotline. The hotline determined there was no investigation warranted and no information was passed on to the Broward Sheriff’s Office which would have been normal procedure.
On Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2013, the police responded to an unrelated child neglect call at the Melvin’s Hallandale Beach home around 8 p.m. That is when they saw there were two children in the home and not Dontrell, reports the Sun-Sentinel.
When authorities called Calvin’s parents, they said they had not seen Dontrell in more than a year, reports the Miami Herald.
On Thursday, Calvin told the authorities that he did not leave the baby with his parents as he had told Britney, but had dropped off the baby at a Miami Gardens fire station as part of the Safe Haven program. The Hallandale Beach Police Chief said on Friday that Melvin has since recanted that story.
Police arrested Calvin and Britney on child neglect charges, and on Friday they were searching the area of 106 NW First Avenue where the couple lived at the time of Dontrell’s disappearance, for any clues as to the whereabouts of Calvin.
“We believe that evidence that is linked to Dontrell’s disappearance is on the property,” Hallandale Beach Police Chief Dwayne Flourney said during a press conference.
