When a child goes missing, time is of the essence. Sadly, as time goes on, the chance of finding the child alive gets slimmer and slimmer. After just a few days, the odds of finding a missing child alive are slim to none.
Despite the depressing statistics about missing children, one Canadian woman never gave up hope that she would one day be reunited with her long-lost son. And more than 30 years later, the woman experienced a moment that almost everyone believed would never happen.
Court-Ordered Visitation
On June 24, 1987, Lyneth Mann-Lewis brought her 21-month-old son, Jermaine, to see his father. The couple had previously split up, and Mann-Lewis was required to bring Jermaine to see his father, Allan Mann Jr. That day, a court-ordered visitation had been scheduled so Mann-Lewis dropped her son off with his father as she was supposed to.
A Weekend With Dad
The scheduled visitation was for just a weekend. Tragically, the moment Mann-Lewis dropped Jermaine off at his father’s home in Toronto was the last time Mann-Lewis saw her son. When she went back to her former partner’s home at the end of the weekend, no one was there.
Filing A Report
Mann-Lewis tried contacting Mann, but he didn’t answer and he never returned to the Toronto apartment. Mann-Lewis was stunned and terrified. Not knowing what else to do, the panicked mother called the police and reported her son was missing and that she believed his father had abducted him.
An Investigation Begins
The police immediately started investigating the missing child report. Based on the details they had at the time, investigators also believed Mann-Lewis’ theory that Mann had taken off with their son. Sadly, however, they never managed to track Mann down.
The Case Goes Cold
As time passed, the chances of finding Mann and Jermaine got slimmer and slimmer. Days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months without any news of Jermaine. Investigators did everything in their power to find Mann-Lewis’ little boy and checked up on every lead, but the case went cold.
The Evidence
According to investigators who had been assigned to the case, they only had a few pieces of evidence despite conducting more than 400 interviews. Based on the information they had gathered over the years, the police believed Mann had most likely taken Jermaine and crossed the border into the United States.
From Toddler to College Grad
Investigators believed that Mann and Jermaine were living somewhere in the northeastern United States. As the years passed, they had reason to believe Jermaine had grown up and had graduated college decades after his abduction. They even had an idea of the college he had attended.
The Mystery Identities
Yet investigators didn’t know the key piece of information that they needed to solve the case. When Mann had escaped to the United States, he had to obtain fake documents for both himself and Jermaine as well as take on fake identities. At that point, the police still had no idea what Mann and Jermaine’s fake names were.
Needle In A Haystack
“We had no names,” Ted Davis, a now-retired police officer from the Calgary Police Service who was originally assigned to the case, told The Star. “We were looking for a needle in a haystack, and this was a really, really big haystack.” Despite the little progress the police had made in the case, Davis never gave up hope that they would find Jermaine.
A Stubborn Cop
In fact, Davis was so invested in finding Jermaine and reuniting Mann-Lewis and her son that he stuck with the case even after he retired from the Calgary Police Service. For the past 28 years, Davis has been working with the Missing Children’s Society of Canada to find Jermaine.
A Special Case
“Ted encouraged me to be always, always believing,” Mann-Lewis told reporters at a news conference about her missing son. According to Davis, he was so committed to solving Jermaine’s disappearance because of Mann-Lewis. “Lyneth was special,” Davis told The Star.
Keeping Faith
According to Davis, nearly all parents who are fighting to find their children are engaged in the investigation and dedicated to finding answers. Mann-Lewis was both engaged and dedicated, but her faith in finding Jermaine never waned over the years.
New Information
“Whenever you talked to her you could tell that she was still persistent and passionate about getting her son back,” Davis said. But Davis and investigators made huge progress after the international fugitive squad conference in 2016. During the conference, U.S. law enforcement officials heard about Jermaine’s case and offered to help.
Tracking Mann Down
U.S. Marshals from both New York and Connecticut managed to track down some of Mann’s relatives who were living in the United States. They told authorities that Mann had lived in the Bronx in the 90s with his son, but that they hadn’t seen him in a long time. The family explained they believed Mann had moved with his son to either Connecticut or North Carolina.
The Fake Identity
The family also divulged one crucial fact. They told authorities that Mann had changed his name to Hailee DeSouza. Investigators then found the driver’s license for a man with the same name living in Connecticut and a forensic specialist compared photos of Mann and DeSouza and confirmed they were the same person.
The Fake Documents
Investigators then managed to track down Mann, who had been living with his now adult son in HUD-subsidized housing in Vernon, Connecticut. According to officials, Mann had obtained fake birth certificates claiming that he and his son had been born in Houston, Texas.
The Arrest
Shortly after tracking Mann down, they arrested him and matched his fingerprints to those on file with the Canadian police. According to Davis, he refrained from telling Mann-Lewis about the developments until Mann was taken into custody as he feared getting her hopes up if something went wrong. Once Mann was in custody and Jermaine, who had been raised with a different name, was located, Davis jumped on a plane to tell Mann-Lewis the news. “You can’t tell someone, after waiting 31 years, over the telephone or FaceTime, ‘Hey listen, I found your son,’” Davis said. “You gotta be there.”
Breaking The News
“The words ‘Your son is alive, we’ve found him’ – that is breathtaking,” Mann-Lewis told reporters about the moment Davis told her the miraculous news. “It’s been a long and hard 31-year journey since my son was abducted and I endured many, many hard days.” Just two days later, in late October of 2018, Mann-Lewis jumped on a plane and flew to Connecticut to meet her now 33-year-old son.
The Emotional Reunion
“I squeezed his head. I wanted to feel if he was real. He said, ‘Mommy, you have my eyes.’ He hugged me and he kissed me and we held for a long time,” Mann-Lewis said about the incredible moment she met her son, who believed his mother died when he was a baby. “I want to encourage other families with missing children and loved ones not to ever, ever give up hope on finding them,” Mann-Lewis said. “I am the proof that after 31 long years of suffering, 31 long years, one should never give up. But be patient. Be strong and believe that all things are possible and that anything can transpire.”
A Grateful Mother
Mann has been charged with making false statements to get HUD housing. Mann will then be extradited to Canada to face an abduction charge. Mann-Lewis is now focusing on rebuilding a relationship with her son and is grateful for everything law enforcement agencies in Canada and the U.S. have done for her. According to Mann-Lewis, she is especially grateful for Davis, as he encouraged her to never give up hope and played a big part in finding her son. “I will forever be grateful for him for everything he has done.”
