Grandmother Pleads for Help to Find Missing Teen

It’s been six days since 13-year-old Ana Ramos from St. Mathews was last seen by her family. Her grandmother, Lourdes Ávila, is now desperately pleading for her safe return.

Ávila, who has raised the first-form student of Belmopan Baptist High School since birth, says the child left for school Friday morning and never came home.

“She never did this before. From the house to school and from school to the house,” Ávila told News 5. “She normally leaves at seven in the morning on the bus to go to school and reaches back home at 4 in the evening every day.”

Ávila added that Ramos had her mobile phone with her when she left for school. However, none of the calls are going through. “It’s like the phone is turned off,” she said.

Ávila says a report was made at the Belmopan police station on Saturday. The family believed at first that Ana may have stayed with a friend, despite her not having done something like this before.

The teen’s mother, Ingrid Ávila, told News 5 that she obtained surveillance footage that shows the moment Ramos made her way through the Belmopan bus terminal and boarded a bus.

She turned in the footage today to investigators. “They tell me they can’t help me because they no got enough evidence… We give them the video, the picture of the person, but they don’t want to help we out.”

“They [police] say that maybe the lee gyal run away, or something… This is the first time something like this happen,” Ingrid added.

The video shows Ramos walking behind a man wearing an orange shirt. In some clips, the man appears to be talking on his phone while walking a few steps ahead of her. She is seen in her school uniform following behind. In the last angle of the footage, the man gets onto a bus first. A couple seconds later, Ramos boards the same bus behind him.

The family is appealing to anyone with information to come forward. Ana’s mother can be reached at 675-0138, and another relative at 611-9202.