Missing Randy and Denim Sylvester

 

Randy Sylvester Jr., 7, and his three year old sister Denim have been missing since Father’s Day. The last time the children were seen, they were playing on a tennis court at their apartment complex at about 3:45 p.m. Their mother, Jerilynn St. Cyr, became worried sometime later when the kids didn’t come back inside. She notified the children’s father, who lives in the same complex, but he didn’t have the kids either. At about 9:15 p.m., the parents reported their kids missing.

 

Randy and Denim were seen by neighbors earlier in the afternoon, hanging out at the complex with their dad, Randy Sylvester Sr. Apparently it’s not uncommon for the children to go back and forth between their parents’ apartments, which may account for some of the delay in reporting the missing kids to police. But by Monday morning, searchers were out in force.

 

Jerilynn St. Cyr is already in front of the cameras, talking about how the police aren’t working hard enough, doing enough to find her kids. I don’t know, but it seems to me that maybe you shouldn’t leave a seven year old in charge of a three year old outside in Pasadena, which is in the southside metro Houston area. Houston is the fourth largest city in America, so maybe not the smartest place to go back inside and leave the first grader to watch the baby.

 

Police are also going back over the parents’ stories. A department spokesman says that there were some “inconsistencies”. Now that could be as simple as a parent not looking at their watch right. Then again, that could also mean that a parent knows exactly where the children are. However, no signs of foul play were found in either parent’s apartment by late Monday night. The father’s car was also searched and came up clean. Further, the kids are not thought to be with relatives.

 

So why no Amber Alert? Because nobody saw anything. In order for an Amber Alert to be issued, a suspect or suspect vehicle and a time of disappearance are needed - and in this case, there’s no suspect or vehicle yet, and no clear time the kids went missing. A four or five hour window is unhelpful at best.

 

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Randy is seven years old. He is 4 feet, 1 inch tall and weighs 55 pounds. He was wearing a blue-and-orange University of Florida Gators shirt, blue denim shorts and blue-and-white tennis shoes. Denim is three. She is about 2 feet, 5 inches tall and was wearing pink shorts, pink flip-flop sandals and a pink T-shirt with brown trim. Her hair was braided and pulled back in a ponytail when she was last seen.

As usual, I’ll update as information comes in. I’m half inclined to think the mother knows something, based on her affect, although I’ve been wrong before.  In this interview, she’s all about “we were gonna look for our own kids until night fell” and showing off the Playstations in between begging for her children’s return.  An interesting statement she made is “Do you know how it feels to not have your children.. to not be able to hold them anymore?”   Maybe I’m wrong, but that just seems odd to me.