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On Sept. 25, 16-year-old Vincent Chavez — Junior, as his family calls him — ran away from his aunt’s house, where the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department had placed him and five of his siblings in foster care the month before. Vincent has Tourette’s syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder, and he had become agitated and angry before running, according to an Albuquerque Police Department report.
His aunt called the police and officers arrived quickly. They briefly spotted someone matching Vincent’s description running into an apartment complex off of Central Avenue and Wyoming Boulevard; they found his red hoodie at the scene, but the teen was able to give them the slip, their report said. Officers entered his information into the National Crime Information Center database, available to law enforcement only. Then they left.
Eight weeks have passed, and nobody has seen Vincent. CYFD has still not posted his photo and information on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website — a step the agency is required to take within 24 hours of a child’s disappearance, as mandated by federal law.
child’s disappearance, as mandated by federal law.
“It’s making us sick,” Vincent’s mother, Kimberly Chavez, said during an interview at her home in Albuquerque’s South Valley. “We can’t sleep at night. He’s out there without his medications.” Caseworkers have not answered family members’ repeated pleas for information, according to phone records shared with Searchlight New Mexico.
“We drive around every day looking for him, because nobody else is doing anything to find him,” Chavez said. “Why isn’t anyone else looking for him?”
CYFD removed Vincent and his siblings from their parents’ home in mid-August, after investigators alleged abuse by Vincent’s father. The family maintains that those allegations are untrue; the matter is currently pending in children’s court. Vincent had never run from home before he was taken into foster care, his parents said.
His aunt called the police and officers arrived quickly. They briefly spotted someone matching Vincent’s description running into an apartment complex off of Central Avenue and Wyoming Boulevard; they found his red hoodie at the scene, but the teen was able to give them the slip, their report said. Officers entered his information into the National Crime Information Center database, available to law enforcement only. Then they left.
Eight weeks have passed, and nobody has seen Vincent. CYFD has still not posted his photo and information on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website — a step the agency is required to take within 24 hours of a child’s disappearance, as mandated by federal law.
child’s disappearance, as mandated by federal law.
“It’s making us sick,” Vincent’s mother, Kimberly Chavez, said during an interview at her home in Albuquerque’s South Valley. “We can’t sleep at night. He’s out there without his medications.” Caseworkers have not answered family members’ repeated pleas for information, according to phone records shared with Searchlight New Mexico.
“We drive around every day looking for him, because nobody else is doing anything to find him,” Chavez said. “Why isn’t anyone else looking for him?”
CYFD removed Vincent and his siblings from their parents’ home in mid-August, after investigators alleged abuse by Vincent’s father. The family maintains that those allegations are untrue; the matter is currently pending in children’s court. Vincent had never run from home before he was taken into foster care, his parents said.
A foster teen has gone missing. Why, his family asks, is no one looking for him?
Eight weeks have passed, and nobody has seen Vincent Chavez, a 16-year old missing in Albuquerque.
www.lcsun-news.com