Police continued their search for a missing 4-year-old boy and his 19-year-old baby sitter Wednesday afternoon, and family members fear foul play could be involved.
The two people haven’t been seen or heard from since Sunday and the baby sitter’s car, a black 1995 Ford Crown Victoria, was discovered on a VFW parking lot in Fairmont City.
Witnesses told FOX2 News that a white man had been seen acting suspiciously around the car including “wiping fingerprints off the steering wheel.”
LaToya Coleman, 24, of the 5900 block of Clarita Avenue, Centreville, filed a missing persons report with East St. Louis police Tuesday after learning that her son, Cermen Lamunt Toney Jr., and his cousin, Anquinaette M. Parker, 19, of Centreville, were missing. Police say the missing boy’s grandmother, Daisy Brown, went to church Sunday, and returned to an empty apartment.
Police said the grandmother thought the boy’s mother had picked him up and Coleman thought the same of the grandmother.
East St. Louis Police Chief James Mister said at a press conference Tuesday that Parker had also recently been threatened by a man who told her to “watch her back.”
He said he did not know if foul play was involved but considers it suspicious that the vehicle was in another city.
“I hope no foul play has occurred. I’m really concerned about both of them right now.”