From Missing Kids Greece

The day reminds everyone around the world that the thousands of children missing have not been forgotten and that we, as a community, part of the global village will continue to search for them. May 25th however, also sends a message of hope. Hope that with everyone’s help, our missing children will find their way home

I want to remind you about Alex Meshivilli. He has been missing since February 2, 2006.

His mum Natela has never given up hope of finding the truth about what happened to her son and she is working courageously to raise awareness about missing children and about the Amber Alert system that has been introduced here. She blogs at Find Alex (in Greek with some English)

A mysterious disappearance from the central street of the town at 7 o’clock in the evening.
5 juveniles confess to murder.
3 subsequently retract their confession.
2 continue to confess to murder and also implicate 3 adults who helped them.
Despite all this, the police are incapable of solving the case, while at the same time they obstinately refuse to search for the body of our son.
All this is happening in a country which is a member of the E.U.!
Welcome to Wonderland!

Please drop by and leave a message for her in Greek or English (or any language) to say that her son is not forgotten.

Technorati Tags: greece, missing children, alex, amber alert

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From Kathimerini

According to a prosecutor who has been investigating the case for four months, the children appear to have hidden Meshivili’s body for two days after his death before transferring it, using a wheelbarrow, from a derelict building in Veria to the banks of a local river where they are believed to have dumped the body.

Some of the young suspects have suggested, in their depositions, that they pushed Meshivili and that he fell over and struck his head. Adults are suspected of helping to dispose of the body.

Read the full article here

Note: The Amber Alert system that Alex’s mother helped to launch helped to track down a missing child a couple of weeks ago. Read the story here.

Technorati: Alex Meshivili, greece, crime, missing children,

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A total of 40 state and private organizations, including local media firms, are to cooperate in implementing the system which makes use of emergency media bulletins, the mass distribution of SMS messages and electronic signs on highways and railways

Amber Alert is named after Amber Hagerman, a nine year old girl, who was kidnapped and murdered in 1996 in Texas.

This early warning system is too late for Alex. He has been missing for over a year but my deepest respect to Natala who has been courageous and caring enough to launch this initiative that might help prevent another parent having to go through what she has suffered. Thank you.

Please help keep Alex in the spotlight here and around the world by posting to your blogs. Does anyone have the time and ability to translate the Find Alex blog into English? If you do, please drop an email to his parents offering your help. Read this from their blog:

Our 11-year-old son disappeared without trace from the centre of Veria on 3rd February 2006 at 7.00p.m. No one saw anything unusual that night. Our search for him was carried out on an international scale. On 2nd June 2006, without letting us know beforehand, the police started excavating beside the Town Hall of Veria. Frantically,we asked the police what was going on and they replied that they had been lookihg into the case and had discovered a gang of 5 juveniles who had connfessed to killing our son.three subsequently retract their confession, saying they were playing a hoax on the police.Two continue to confess to murder and also implicate three adults who helped them. Despite all this,the police are incapable of solving the case,while at the same time they obstinately refuse to search for the body of our son…

Read the full article about Amber Alert from Kathimerini here.

From currybet.net.

Remember Alex is totally unlike Madeleine Mcann. There is no national campaign here in Greece to find Alex. No fund to support his anguished mother. No chain email. No video clips shown before the Greek Cup Final appealing for fresh information.

But then Alex isn’t a photogenic three year old girl.

Alex is a “not we”. Georgian. Not Greek. One of the 8.1% of the population of Greece that is an immigrant.

The fact that his fate remains unknown doesn’t feature in the news in Greece anymore.

Please help this to change.

Technorati: Greece, Alex Meshivilli, missing children, amber alert,

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I have felt quite devastated by the suffering of his mother, Natela Ichuadze

Adults are almost certainly involved. How many and who they are, is not known. All we could have hoped for was a quick and truthful conclusion. That has not happened

I am so sorry, Alex and Natela. And to your family and friends. I can only hope that you will all be able to find a way to cope with the truth of what happened once that is known.

To the people who were not directly involved but know what happened or have any details, I urge you to come forward. I was watching “Quiz Show” last night and there was a line that jumped out

It was the “getting away with it” that I couldn’t live with

If you are there in Veria and know something, know anything, please come forward. However small it might seem.

I cannot imagine living with that burden. I cannot imagine how hard it must be to come forward. And I hope I am NEVER in your position.

But I also hope that Alex and his mum find justice and finally, peace. Please help if you can.

UPDATE: Thank you to Jim_Hellas who pointed out this blog written by the parents of Alex
Please visit and leave a message of support in Greek or English (language differences do not rule out caring)

Technorati: Alex Meshivili, Veria, Greece, murder, missing

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As a parent you worry about your child every single day. It is like a low level background noise that most of the time you manage to ignore and then it suddenly fills up your head and you wonder how you don’t notice it always.

The day before yesterday, my kid was approached by a pervert on his way to school, on the second day I let him walk alone. He followed him half the way and told him that he would give him money to kiss him. Can you imagine what this feels like? My baby in danger. On his first steps towards being independent. I will be walking him to school again. I would be walking him to school until he’s 18 if I had my way. I can’t protect him. I can’t make the world safe and good for him.

And then my mind naturally thinks about what could have happened. The worst scenarios. Things that NO parent should have to think about. I don’t have a religion but right now I wish I believed in a high power looking out for him. I wish I believed in guardian angels or spirits. Anything rather than thinking of my kid out there alone in the world.

We have told the school and the parents of his friends around the neighbourhood. Sadly, we found out that this is not an isolated incident. Several schools have reported various incidents of predators hanging around. I can’t bear thinking about it…

The kid is fine. We talked and will continue to do so as much as we need to. I’m not fine. I don’t know what to do with the anger I feel. The fear I feel. The knowing what could and does happen to children. The disgust that such people exist. For real. Not just newspaper stories but in your life.

I am in no way comparing what happened to Alex to what happened to the kid. I am just finding it very difficult to deal with the case of little Alex and thinking about how Natela, his mother, must be suffering.

So I’m just going to post the links to the updates about Alex.

Adults hid Alex, child confesses

Alex’s parents plead for help

CaliforniaKat says it better than me

Alex’s mother has been painstakingly waiting to learn her son’s whereabouts, with each day longer than the next. This may not have been the news she wanted to hear, but perhaps now she can stop wandering in the unknown and start walking a path toward grieving and healing.

[I am hesitating big time to hit publish on this post. I just felt it was important somehow, to let you know what we are going through right now.]

Technorati: Alex Meshivili, Greece, crime,

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Alex Mechisvili has been missing for just over a year now.

Via BBC News

A leading child psychologist, Dr Christina Antonopoulou has accused police in northern Greece of covering up the activities of a paedophile ring. She said that from the beginning she believed that his disappearance was linked to child sexual abuse and molestation.

This disturbed many people in Veria and they began to express their hostility. I am talking about the legal department, the police and people in political offices. I was very surprised how people began to close in when we came to discuss names that could be involved in Veria

She now needs a bodyguard when she travels to the “triangle of abuse” as the area is known to Interpol (referring to the area marked by the three towns of Veria, Edessa and Kozani). Recently, a businessman in Edessa was charged with molesting young boys and paying the children’s parents to keep them quiet. One of his victims identified at least one of Alex’s alleged murderers as being involved in a paedophile ring.

Alex’s mother, Natela, is calling for the government to authorise a new inquiry by national police. She said

I must remain strong for Alex. I must find him, or I must find the people who made him something ugly.We want our son back, alive or no.

I don’t know how anyone can bear such pain. It is clearly written on her face. As well as losing her child, she is dealing with a town that has closed ranks against her and the five suspects are free to hang around her apartment and taunt her. How can people allow this ? Those people who are covering up are guilty of complicity.

My thoughts are with her.

Full story at BBC News

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