A Claxton Bay mother is appealing to her runaway 16-year-old daughter, Daina Wallace to return to the sanctuary of their home, warning that the old Marabella train line is no place for her to be.
Wallace ran away from home for a fifth time on Saturday.
Lisa Ali said someone contacted her on Sunday to inform her that the teen was seen walking along Bayshore Avenue (Old train line), Marabella.
“Come home Daina because there is not a place for you to be. Come home and let us see what can be done,” Ali said in a heartfelt message yesterday.
She said Wallace’s absence was taking a toll on the family, who was reliving the horror they first experienced in 2016 on previous occasion when the teen ran away.
Ali said Wallace ran away on four times before with the previous disappearance lasting a year and four months. She was picked up by St Margaret’s police on Friday when they saw her walking by herself in Marabella. She was questioned by police and released to the custody of Ali.
However, Ali said Wallace refused to talk about where she was staying and what was going on. She said Wallace had an emotional reunion with her brother and sisters, and showed no signs of ditching the family again.
“She just stayed at home with me on Friday night and all day on Saturday. Around 6.30 pm Saturday, she slipped out on me. I didn’t even know she was gone. She jumped the fence because the gate was locked. We spoke before she left, but she did not really want to open up and say where she was and what she was doing.
“I did not want to push her to frustrate her because I did not want her to leave again. I asked her what she wanted to do because I was making plans for her to do a course. She told me she liked hair dressing. Everything was normal, we cooked lunch, she slept, got up and watched TV,” Ali said.
The old train line is unfamiliar to the family who only moved from San Juan to St Margaret’s three years ago. Ali said Wallace was a straight A student at the Union Claxton Bay Secondary School until she met someone who she described as “bad company.”
Since then, she began leaving home without permission but would come back. However, on December 11, 2016, it appeared that she left home for good.
“It was real terrible then and now it is like I’m going back through the same thing all over again. I have other children and they are going through this all over again. I don’t know how to describe it but right now I can’t even cook some food for my children so I bought bread. How will I give up? She is my daughter, my belly. I worry every time the police find a body. I start to wonder if it is her because I don’t know what is going on.
“I am never giving up though sometimes I try not to take it on too much because it affects me. I am not working because of this. I could not function and sometimes I did not go to work so I was deemed unreliable and I lost my work through that. Since then to now, I’ve been unemployed.”
Ali’s other two daughters are expected to write the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) next month. Her message to those whom she believes are harbouring her daughter was not as kind.
Ali said, “Daina is under-age and whosoever is harbouring Daina, it is best for you to let her go to the St Margaret’s Police Station because you will be locked up. They would say nobody is harbouring her because she was found moving about on her own free will but they are not seeing that is a minor and a stranger to the area.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact the St Margaret’s police at 659 2530 or Marabella police 652–6777.
