Baby Bryan is out there - somewhere.
Who has him is an open question; one a task force of investigators is
still trying to answer as the case nears its 13th day.
If the police have fresh clues no one is saying. There is an unofficial
news blackout in place as the task force retools from the hunt for a lone
kidnapper to an attempt to penetrate a human smuggling ring.
Investigators regrouped today and mapped their plans to move forward with
a new phase of the hunt, said Shelly Flynn, a spokeswoman for the Fort
Myers Police Department. Beginning today police intend to hold daily press
briefings at 3 p.m. to handle the flood of calls that are now coming in
from both local and national media, she added.
news-press.com reporters have found themselves the subject of repeated
interviews on national networks as news agencies try to fill in the blanks
for the public.
Police still hope to keep the case out in front of the public, even as
they shift to what could be a long term investigation, officials said.
There are still conflicting stories about what has happened.
The police are confident Bryan was taken as a reprisal for his parents
failure to pay money owed to the smugglers, or coyotes, that brought them
into the country from their native Brazil. No one has explained why they
believe that.
Adding to the confusion, Bryan’s mother, Maria Dos Santos, 23, told
news-press.com she and her husband owed several hundreds dollars to the
smugglers.
A day later the baby’s father, Jurandir Gomes Costa, 26, said in a news-press.com
interview that neither he or Dos Santos owed coyotes anything.
He and those close to him insisted coyotes had nothing to do with the
abduction.
Whether that’s fear talking or fact is something the police will need to
sort out.
The coyotes spark fear in many immigrants, illegal or otherwise, experts
say.
Immigration officials describe them as vicious predators motivated by
money, according to Barbara Gonzalez, acting director of Immigrations and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the southeastern U.S.
The search for information will probably get a lot tougher now, said Elena
Grossman with Fort Myers-based Florida Rural Legal Services. She
specializes in helping migrant farmworkers and is familiar with the fear
coyotes, as the smugglers are called, can generate.
The fear factor is the constant undercurrent here, she said.
“People who are smuggled in have all the fears that go with being an
undocumented worker. They are also afraid of the coyote they have the debt
to. They are afraid of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) sending
them back.”
Being sent back does not erase the debt to the coyote, she added.
“In some cases the debt is worse if they’re sent back,” she said.
“The coyote knows who their family is and where they are. They know
their families are in danger if they don’t make their payments.”
All of that makes it highly unlikely police will find willing witnesses,
she said.
“They fear any type of law enforcement,” she said. “They don’t
understand the difference between local police and immigration.”
Police will have to overcome those obstacles, she added.
Police still want to know who the woman is in the composite drawing they
distributed.
Now they believe she is a member of the smuggling gang.
Getting cooperation from some very scared people may be essential, police
and experts say.
8:46 a.m.
A refocused police investigation is trying to penetrate the shadowy
world of human smuggling as the hunt for a kidnapped Fort Myers baby
extends into its eleventh day.
And the hunt for month-old Bryan Dos Santos Gomes has attracted national
media attention, with news outlets CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel all
beginning to highlight the case.
News-Press staffer Ed Johnson is to discuss the case on MSNBC this morning
at 9 and again at 1 p.m.
Reinforced by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the task
force looking to bring Bryan home is now focusing on a human smuggling
ring that brought the baby's parents into the country, police say.
Jurandir Gomes Costa, 26, and Maria Dos Santos, 23, were smuggled into the
country, police chief Hilton Daniels has said.
The public face of the case has been one of contradiction, with
investigators rapidly shifting from a hunt for a lone kidnapper to this
new phase. In this phase there, too, have been contradictions. While the
police chief has said the motive for the kidnapping is reprisal for money
not paid to smugglers, the baby's father has denied that.
"It's a lie," he said in a Sunday interview with news-press.com
and The News-Press.
The source of the new information remains a closely guarded secret within
police headquarters, although some close to the investigation note the
shift came less than 24 hours after a $21,000 reward was posted for
Bryan's safe return.
The parents' immigration status, glossed over by police in the first phase
of the investigation, is now being highlighted as investigators probe the
secretive and violent world of those whose networks bring illegal
immigrants into the country.
FROM TODAY'S EDITIONS OF THE NEWS-PRESS
As investigators switch gears in the kidnapping case of infant Bryan
Dos Santos, the boy's father said allegations that he and his son's mother
owed money to smugglers was untrue.
"It's a lie," Jurandir Gomes Costa, 26, told The News-Press
through a translator Sunday.
Saturday, police said the motive for the Dec. 1 kidnapping of baby Bryan
was a reprisal because his parents had not paid smugglers, or coyotes, who
brought them to the United States. Before then, investigators had said the
baby had been kidnapped by a woman who most probably yearned for a child
of her own.
Police would not discuss the case Sunday.
Because of the human smuggling development, Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) are now helping Fort Myers police and the FBI
investigate, said Barbara Gonzalez, the agency's acting regional director
for the southeast United States.
"We are assisting the Fort Myers Police Department with this
investigation," she said. "Our agency is committed to
investigating human smuggling networks. These people have no regard for
human life."
Meanwhile, on Sunday Costa said he gave Fort Myers police confidential
information, but he would not say what that was, claiming he was told not
to by the FBI and Fort Myers police.
Costa refused to answer questions about whether he and Bryan's mother,
Maria Dos Santos, 23, had been smuggled into the country. He also refused
to answer whether he is here legally.
"The police know all about that," he said.
Costa said there have been no ransom demands or requests for money
since a woman in a sport-utility vehicle stopped Maria Dos Santos and a
friend for directions to the south Fort Myers neighborhood of Pine Manor
and kidnapped Bryan at knifepoint.
Costa also would not say whether he had received demands for money
before Bryan was taken.
A $21,000 reward is being offered for the baby's safe return.
Costa also said he and Dos Santos had lived on Eighth Street in Pine Manor
south of Fort Myers prior to moving to the Tropical Trailer Park on
Linhart Avenue in Fort Myers about 11 months ago.
Costa did not attach any significance to the kidnapper's request for
directions to Pine Manor.
He became upset with questions that dealt with human smuggling or payments
to smugglers.
"These questions hurt him," said Costa's friend, Carlos Rocha.
"He says they have nothing to do with helping Bryan."
SHIFTING GEARS
If human smugglers are responsible for the abduction of baby Bryan Dos
Santos Gomes, investigators are going to have to shift gears quickly and
refocus the investigation, experts say.
"Trying to crack into a smuggling group is a lot different than
hunting a woman who just wanted a baby," said John Rabun, executive
vice president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children,
which has been assisting Fort Myers police. "This would be a whole
new investigation."
Officials would not comment on whether this development lessens the
chances of a safe return, but Rabun said the lack of contact with the
kidnappers does not "bode well" for the baby.
Until Saturday, the investigation had been right out of the FBI
handbook for infant abductions, experts say.
Police made extensive efforts to keep the case in the public eye and had
Bryan's mother make tearful appeals for her son's return. A sketch of the
suspect was released last week.
"Those were all the steps designed to find a woman who had abducted a
baby to keep herself," Rabun said. "Now it sounds like you have
something very different. It will be a different type of
investigation."
Still, many of the steps the police have followed would have been done
in a human-smuggling investigation, experts said.
"You'd still have to check out the tips off the composite
sketch," Rabun said. "A lot of those leads would have to be done
anyway. They didn't waste their time."
Police have said the woman depicted in the sketch is still believed to
be the kidnapper, adding she is suspected to be part of the smuggling
group.
Gonzalez, of ICE, acknowledged that some investigative steps would be
different, but she refused to elaborate how human -smuggling cases are
investigated.
"I don't want to detail the tools that we use," she said,
"but, like any investigation, you have to gather evidence, follow
leads, and we will be vigorously working in that direction."
She would not say how many ICE agents are assigned to the case.
"That information is law- enforcement sensitive," she said.
A human-smuggling investigation would also require a collaborative
effort between local and federal agencies, said Steve McDonald, a
spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol, which handles the overland aspects
of smuggling investigations.
Saturday, Fort Myers police Chief Hilton Daniels said Bryan's parents had
been smuggled into the country, but offered no specifics of how.
"If you're trying to get human smugglers who are holding someone, you
have to actually target the smuggling operation," McDonald said.
"You have to develop information on the size and nature of their
organization."
None of the law-enforcement representatives or experts interviewed had
ever heard of a smuggling group abducting a baby in the United States.
"I've heard of it in other countries, but not here," Rabun
added.
SMUGGLING QUESTIONED
Some members of the Brazilian community questioned this latest
development Sunday.
Lucia Chermot, who lives in the Tropical Trailer Park off Linhart
Avenue in Fort Myers, said she had worked with Bryan's mother cleaning
houses.
"She was a very calm lady, a very nice nice lady," Chermot said
through a translator. "There is no coyote involved here. Not with a
baby."
Chermot said if a smuggler were involved, he would have tried to turn in
the baby for the reward money. "I think one person did this,"
she said.
The $21,000 reward comes from the FBI, Fort Myers Police, the Florida
Department of Law Enforcement, the Carol Sund/Harrington Foundation and an
anonymous donor. It will be paid to someone who returns Bryan safely or
provides information that leads to his safe return, officials said.
"I believe this is one evil action by one lady," said Rocha,
Costa's friend. "She could see that (Dos Santos) is a very shy, very
simple lady. This lady used psychology to get this baby. I think the baby
is still in Florida and God is watching over him."
Costa and Rocha come from Itaipu, a city of about 12,000 people. Rocha
described it as a community of mostly poor migrant workers about 700 miles
south of Sao Paulo.
Costa said he has worked as a day laborer, laying tile for various
contractors.
Since the abduction he has not worked. The family's financial needs are
being met by area church groups, according to the Rev. Israel Suarez of
the Nations Association, a community group in Fort Myers.
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