MONTEGO BAY, St James — FOUR persons including an American woman and a 16-year-old boy who were charged in connection with the abduction of a three-year-old boy earlier this month were remanded when they appeared in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

The four will return to Court next Thursday, May 26 where bail applications are expected to be made on their behalf.

The adults are 27-year-old counsellor Jenise Regisford of Connecticut, USA and Cornwall Courts, St James; 23-year-old Jonathan Mitchell, a labourer of Rose Mount, St James; 21-year-old barber Trevon Tomlinson of Belize Avenue, Cornwall Courts.

Regisford is represented by attorney-at-law Martyn Thomas, Tomlinson by Adrian Dayes and the minor by Albert Morgan while Mitchell is yet to secure legal representation.

The accused persons have been charged with kidnapping, conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to extort.

Mitchell, who is alleged to be the mastermind behind the abduction, is said to be a former employee of the child’s parents, who operate businesses in Montego Bay.

On Tuesday, May 3 the three-year-old child went missing after classes were dismissed at Mount Alvernia Preparatory and Kindergarten School. Shortly after 1:30 pm when his mother turned up at the school she was told that a man had already collected him.

Sources at the school said that prior to the abduction a female accomplice of the man who took the child, visited the school and inquired of the principal how she could get her child enrolled.

It is understood that the woman, who spoke with a ‘foreign’ accent, was sent to the administrative block to purchase an application form.

She reportedly complied, after which she left the school compound and headed for the road where she boarded a motor car. Shortly after, the child was snatched and taken to the waiting car by the alleged mastermind.

The Montego Bay CIB, led by Deputy Superintendent Derrick Champagnie, later recovered the child who was found sleeping inside a house in Bailiston, Manchester during the wee hours of the following morning.

— Paul A Reid/Horace Hines