LUCEA, Hanover – The mysterious disappearance of a 26-year-old schizophrenic man, Horane Grant, has left his family pleading for the public’s assistance in locating him.

Grant, otherwise called “Darren”, has not been seen six weeks after he left his Case Hill, Cascade in Hanover home .

In an interview with the Jamaica Observer West, his sister Renae Grant shared that her brother was last seen on December 10 at a popular hangout spot in the town of Lucea.

“On December 10, it was a Friday, and I went to a popular hangout spot. When I was about to leave I saw him at the bar…I asked him how he was going to get home and he said that he has a friend in Lucea, so he is good. Then he begged me for a phone call to [contact] his friend and he walked away from the noise. When him come back mi ask him where him friend deh and he said that he is in the town waiting on him. I asked if he was sure that he is good and he said yes. So, I left and went home,” his sister recounted.

She told the Observer West that the family became worried when Grant did not turn up at home after his night out. Steps taken to trace him down have also proved futile.

Pointing out that it is not unusual for her brother to leave home since being diagnosed with the mental disorder in 2018, his sister noted that he would always return home for “his Sunday dinner”.

“It is not the first time he is sleeping out, he slept out about two times before like on the weekends when him get wah likkle money, so I thought that he would come home on Sunday,” said Renae.

“But when we saw that he did not come home on Sunday, we realised that it was serious because no matter how he goes out on the weekends, he never misses his Sunday dinner.”

Renae told the Observer West that both herself and her mother reported him missing and went searching for him the following day.

“So, my mother went to the [police] station and filed the missing person report on Monday morning and we went searching for him. I also went back to the last place that I saw him and they said that nobody was at the venue after they closed,” she said.

Though it has been six weeks since Horane was last seen, his family is hopeful that he is alive. His current mental state, Renae said, might have caused his disappearance from home.

“We are hopeful that he is alive. He is schizophrenic so I am thinking that he probably has just wandered off somewhere, but I don’t see him in Hanover. I would like if anybody at all sees him they call the Lucea police. The thing that I don’t want to happen is for people to not know of his mental state and harm him — that is my biggest fear,” she told the Observer West.

“But with it being over a month with no updates, our thoughts are just running wild because we don’t hear about him being seen anywhere anymore. We really need to get him home so that he can get the right treatment, but we don’t know where else to look.”

According to the Lucea police, Grant was last seen wearing a white ‘T-shirt’, green pants and a pair of green and yellow sneakers.

He is of dark complexion, slim build and about 170 centimetres (5 feet 7 inches) tall.