Bryan Gomes

New Information in Baby Bryan abduction


January 26, 2007

By Nick Spinetto


On Friday, police revealed a new clue in the search for baby Bryan Dossantos Gomes.

They are sharing surveillance video of the SUV involved in the kidnapping.

The video appears to be grainy, but police say it is a black Ford Explorer 2-door Sport Edition.

Authorities say the car may have been made between 1998-2003.

The updated information is appearing on fliers police are handing out.

Police spent part of Friday handing out the fliers to residents.

They're trying to get the new information out to as many people as possible.

Some residents say they plan to keep an eye open for that vehicle, because they can only imagine what baby bryan's parents are going through.

"It's just heart-wrenching, especially with somebody that has kids. I'd go crazy," said Jennifer Trout, a Fort Myers resident.

Fort Myers Police will continue handing out the fliers Saturday morning.

http://www.winktv.com/x26423.xml

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SUV identification generates few leads in Baby Bryan case


Monday, Jan. 29, 2007 S



By Melissa Cassutt

Monday, January 29, 2007

Information released last week about the car used in the abduction of now 2-month-old Baby Bryan produced less than a dozen leads, said Fort Myers Police Department spokeswoman Shelly Flynn.

"We received 10 leads from Thursday and Friday," she said. "Not as many as we had hoped."

Fort Myers Police detectives released exact details of the car Friday, saying police are looking for a black 2-door Ford Explorer Sport Edition, model year between 1998 and 2003. Police had previously said the car was a black 2-door SUV with peeling window tint.

Bryan was abducted with his 23-year-old mother on Dec. 1 by a Hispanic woman described as 28 to 30 years old with straight black hair. Maria De Fatima Ramos Dos Santos reportedly entered the suspect's car with Bryan and a friend also carrying a baby, to show the woman how to get to Pine Manor, a neighborhood in Fort Myers.

On the way back to where the women entered the car, the suspect let out the other woman and child, but pushed Ramos Dos Santos back into the car. The woman then drove south to Estero, where she stopped, pointed a knife toward the child and told Ramos Dos Santos to exit the car. An Amber Alert was issued at 7:15 p.m. on Dec. 1.

Detectives working on the case are continuing to hit big stores in Fort Myers with fliers, hoping someone will come forth with new information. Though the baby has been missing for nearly two months and the press coverage has slowed, the public hasn't forgotten about Baby Bryan, Flynn said.

"It was actually the opposite," she said. "They remembered (the case). People were supportive and happy we are still working on it and taking the extra effort to get leads."

Anyone with information on Baby Bryan is asked to contact the Fort Myers Police Department at (239) 334-4155, or to call 911 or a toll-free number, 1-877-667-1296, set up specifically for this case. Those uncomfortable calling the police can contact the Rev. Israel Suarez, executive director of the Nations Association, at his office (239) 332-7575, or on his cell phone (239) 707-5520. Suarez said he is available 24 hours a day.

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/jan/29/suv_identification_generates_few_leads_baby_bryan_/?latest

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Baby Bryan's parents to speak at Thursday press conference


Daily News Staff

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

The Rev. Israel Suarez will hold a press conference Thursday morning on the Baby Bryan case. No topic has yet been released, but the parents will be attending and plan to address the media.

The press conference will be at 10 a.m. at the the Nations Association Charities (4625 Palm Beach Boulevard) in Fort Myers.

Bryan was abducted from his mother Dec. 1 by a Hispanic woman described as 28 to 30 years old with straight black hair.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to the call the toll free
tip line at 877-667-1296. Callers can remain anonymous.

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/jan/31/baby_bryans_parents_speak_thursday_press_conferenc/?latest

Baby Bryan parents answer questions about criticism


Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007



Originally published — 10:00 a.m., February 1, 2007
Updated — 2:17 p.m., February 1, 2007

Baby Bryan's parents rebuffed criticism this morning that the couple's lack of public appearances is a sign of their waning investment in finding their son.

Maria de Fatima Ramos Dos Santos raised her voice and her hands when answering questions this morning, stressing her desire to find her 3-month-old son has not faded in the past two months. Ramos Dos Santos and her husband, Jurandir Gomes Costa, have shied away from the few media events held in the past weeks, spurring criticism from the public that the couple isn't working hard enough.

Fort Myers Police have also insinuated the parents have withheld pertinent information in the investigation, though the couple said they've been forthright about their illegal status in the country and the money they still owe to the smugglers who brought them in. Ramos Dos Santos was adamant her child was not taken as retaliation for the couple's unpaid debt, a position she has held strong since police first announced the motive.

"Everything is the same question, same answer, every time," said Rev. Israel Suarez, executive director of the Nations Association, where this morning's press conference was held. "I'd like to get more, you know?"

Suarez said he's not frustrated with the parents, but said he has stressed the importance of being before the media to appeal to the public for help. Suarez said he is planning on rallying the Brazilian community, which has not unified behind the family as expected, and continuing to pass out fliers.

"There's no more the police can do," Suarez said. "(The parents) can make the difference. We need her and the husband to be out there. They can make a difference."

The couple, however, said their hesitance to speak partly stems from their roots. Both are from a small town in Minas Gerais, a state in Brazil. Neither expected to be thrust in the public eye in the midst of what has turned out to be their personal hell.

"It's kind of hard to explain. It's something we weren't planning for. In a way it's good because people are helping us," Ramos Dos Santos said in an interview following the press conference. "(The abduction) was the worst day of my life. Unfortunately Bryan was there."

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/feb/01/baby_bryan_press_conference_starts/

Police asked Baby Bryan's parents if they sold the missing infant


Feb. 2, 2007


Father concedes he owes human smugglers ‘a little’ but swears he would never have sold his son

By Melissa Cassutt

Originally published — 12:30 a.m., February 2, 2007
Updated — 12:18 p.m., February 2, 2007

The father of Baby Bryan said Thursday that Fort Myers police initially questioned if he had sold his child, a proposal Jurandir Gomes Costa said would “never” happen.

The parents of the missing 3-month-old baby were criticized again Thursday in a press conference in Fort Myers, the first the couple attended together since the first days their baby was abducted.

Besides avoiding the spotlight, which caused the press and public to raise concerns, the couple has also been under fire from the Fort Myers Police Department, which questions how forthcoming the duo have been with information pertaining to their son.

Gomes Costa, Bryan’s 26-year-old father, said initially the investigation was focused on him and the mother, but police have stopped contacting them as frequently. Police took Gomes Costa and the mother’s clothing from the day of the abduction, as well as Bryan’s clothes from the day before for evidence, Gomes Costa said.

“In the beginning (police visited every day),” said Gomes Costa. “Now the police don’t have any doubts that we had nothing to do with this.”

However, the investigation continues to focus on human smuggling, and detectives are still working the theory the child was stolen as retribution for the couple’s unpaid debt.

Though the parents admit theywere smuggled into the country, when asked how much they owe their smugglers, Gomes Costa only says “a little.” He also insists the baby was not taken by the smugglers, and confirmed Thursday after the press conference that the couple has been in contact with the smugglers since the kidnapping. More questions prompted Gomes Costa to tense and stop talking about the transaction.


Maria de Fatima Ramos dos Santos, center, mother of kidnapped infant Bryan Dos Santos Gomes, looks down as Everson Menezes, left, translates for Santos and the baby’s father, Jurandir Gomes Costa, right, during a press conference in Fort Myers on Thursday morning. The parents of the missing baby spoke to the media in the front entrance of the Nations Association Charities, where they faced a barrage of questions regarding their possible debt to human traffickers who smuggled them from Brazil to the United States, and whether that may have played a role in the kidnapping of their son.

Through Everson Menezes, a Portuguese translator, Gomes Costa stressed the couple “did not sell the child” and “did not give the child away” and are pleading for whoever stole their baby to return him.

Rev. Israel Suarez, executive director of the Nations Association and local Latino activate, said he pushed for the parents to attend Thursday’s press conference so they can answer questions people have been asking him. Suarez has been advocating for the child since the baby was taken from his mother at knifepoint on Dec. 1.

“I feel they did the best they can do to try to make clear the situation,” Suarez said in the news conference. “I know some things might look a little funny ... but at this point, my role here is the baby.”

He said after the meeting that he is not angry with the parents, but many questions have been left hanging.

“Everything is the same question, same answer every time,” he said. “I’d like to get more, you know?”

Bryan Dos Santos Gomes was abducted with his 23-year-old mother, Maria de Fatima Ramos Dos Santos, two months ago by a woman wielding a knife. Initially police suspected the woman had recently lost a child or could not have one of her own. She is described as 28 to 30 years old with black, straight hair partially in a bun, standing 5 feet 4 inches. She is suspected of driving a black two-door Ford Explorer with peeling tint.

“This woman, she exists,” Gomes Costa said. “This car is somewhere. It’s not a ghost.”

However, the theory of a woman stealing a child because she wanted one of her own hasn’t arisen as a serious lead from police since the night of the kidnapping.

Investigators have turned their attention to human trafficking and smuggling, and at one point detained Valter Coelho, a “known enforcer of a human smuggling ring,” according to the Fort Myers Police.

Ramos Dos Santos denied any relation to Coelho, but after further probing her boyfriend admitted he knew Coelho informally. He said they’re from the same village in Brazil but didn’t know each other well.

“They don’t want to know (Coelho’s involvement),” said Everson Menezes, who translated for the parents Thursday. “They don’t care. They want the baby and they want the baby now. They don’t care what’s going to happen to them.”

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/feb/02/baby_bryans_parents_face_questions_about_sons_kidn/?latest

[u]

Stolen baby’s parents could get legal status


By Melissa Cassutt

Saturday, February 10, 2007

The illegal residence status of Baby Bryan’s parents doesn’t worry Fort Myers Police.

Soon they might not be considered illegal.

One local immigration lawyer said Maria de Fatima Ramos Dos Santos and her boyfriend, Jurandir Gomes Costa, have a few choices for gaining legal status in the country. The option is a U visa, which is granted to aliens who become victims of a crime while in the United States.

The visa is “only a temporary legal status solely for the purpose of testifying for the crime against them,” said Naples-based immigration attorney Casey Wolff.

Silvana Franca, a local Brazilian minister, told the Daily News on Friday the couple retained an attorney after the Dec. 1 abduction of their son.

Franca declined to name the attorney, but said the lawyer has been helping get the couple’s paperwork in order.

The Florida Equal Justice Center completed about a dozen U visas last year, mostly for victims of domestic violence, said executive director Sally Schmidt. How the applicant arrived in the United States doesn’t factor into the paperwork, though cooperation with police does, Schmidt said.

The process takes about four to six months to complete, and gives the applicant the right to work in the country. It’s not meant to be a permanent solution, but it can be renewed every year, Schmidt said.

However, the couple doesn’t have any options to stay permanently, Wolff said. Section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act prevents illegal aliens from applying for permanent legal status while in the country, he said.

“If you came in illegally, stayed more than a year, you can’t come back for 10 years,” Wolff said. “Which is the same thing as essentially, ‘go home’.”

Bryan Dos Santos Gomes, who was born in Fort Myers, doesn’t face the same legal tangles, but his parents woes could pull him back to Brazil should he be returned. Generally children of illegal aliens stick with their deported parents, but teenagers and adult children often choose to stay in the U.S., splitting the family.

“This is not a good law,” Wolff said. “It’s a horrible situation, but that’s what we’re stuck with.”

http://www.bonitanews.com/news/2007/feb/10..._status/?latest

Baby Bryan case fading from view


Parents in Fort Myers still cling to hope

By Ed Johnson
ejohnson@news-press.com

Originally posted on February 25, 2007

A faded composite sketch of the woman sought in Bryan's kidnapping hangs near Tropical Trailer Park. It's been almost three months since the infant was abducted at knifepoint. Police still report no solid leads.

The Dec. 1 kidnapping of Fort Myers infant Bryan Dos Santos Gomes may be taking a slow slide to the unsolved files.

Leads have slowed to a trickle and public awareness has dropped. Police are now being pulled in other directions.

That combination means odds to a successful conclusion have become much longer, said John Rabun, executive vice president for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va.

At Fort Myers police headquarters, a handful of investigators continue to pursue leads in the case. For most, leads are now handled between other investigations.

Two homicides in as many weeks have stretched investigative resources.

But Detective Sergeant Jen Soto said the kidnapping still is being investigated every day.

Fort Myers police have a sergeant and six detectives assigned to violent crimes.

"We were prepared for this from the beginning of the case," she said. "The six violent crimes detectives are our core, but we also call on other resources within our department, like experienced patrol and community policing officers. We also have the resources of the FBI and the FDLE."

A peeling, sun-yellowed poster of the woman who kidnapped baby Bryan Dos Santos Gomes still hangs off a lightpost outside the Tropical Trailer Park in Fort Myers, a reminder of the baby's knifepoint abduction as his mother and a friend got into a woman's car to give her directions to Pine Manor.

His mother, Maria Fatima Ramos Dos Santos, has a small shrine in her mobile home. She still lays fresh flowers each day before a statue of "Our Lady of Fatima," for whom she is named. It's a request, she said, for divine intervention.

"I just want my baby," she said. "Whoever has my baby needs to bring him back."

She said she still is hopeful, but her eyes now display a defeated, resigned look.

"It's painful every day without the baby we're suffering," she said through an interpreter. "Now I just hope our baby is in good hands; that he isn't suffering."

A billboard will soon highlight the case, donated by Carter-Pritchett Advertising of North Fort Myers. It will most likely be placed along State Road 82 between Fort Myers and Lehigh.

It's an effort to keep alive the case, said Charles Cockrill, a company representative.

"Hope is all they have," the Rev. Israel Suarez, director of Nations Association Charities and a police department chaplain, said of Bryan's parents. "A mother never gives up hope. A mother can never forget her baby."

Suarez said he is dismayed by lack of interest the case has generated in the Brazilian community.

"I've tried to get some Brazilian churches involved, but they just haven't shown much interest," he said.

The case was a puzzler from the start, detectives said. There were delays in calling the police that have still not been fully explained. Police initially attributed it to a language barrier. Later, they explored more nefarious motives, including a theory the baby had been sold. The parents were given lie detector tests and Dos Santos said police told her there were "problems" with her answers.

Did she fail the test? Cops aren't saying.

There also is the question of human smuggling. Was Bryan taken as reprisal for his parents' unpaid smuggling debts? At one point police believed so, but it seems they have now backed away from that theory.

Community reaction to the case has been hard to gauge.

The kidnap never captured the city's heart, said Rabun of the center for missing and exploited children.

"That's something we count on to help locate the baby," he said in an earlier interview. "We want people talking about the case. That's how information is generated."

The case did generate its share of vitriol, mostly in the form of web postings and e-mails to The News-Press, complaining of the parents' illegal immigration status.

It's an issue that might rise again as the parents explore options to stay in the U.S.

One of those options is an "s" visa, which can be given to people who assist police in criminal investigations.

Ricardo Skerrett, an immigration attorney, said he has already told Bryan's parents he will help them for free if they are eligible.

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070225/NEWS0110/702250397

Search for Baby Bryan continues, but becoming more difficult


By Melissa Cassutt

Saturday, March 3, 2007

She has missed so much.

Gurgles and coos. Smiles. The first time her son held his head up. The point when he could have recognized her face.

He’s bigger now — likely a few inches longer, twice his weight. He’s growing into himself, though he’s still as unrecognizable to a stranger as the day he was stolen. But his mother would know him. She prays she will know him again.

Bryan Dos Santos Gomes is 4 months old today. He’s been missing for three of those.

“Four months is a really big time,” said Dr. Martin Sherman, a Fort Myers pediatrician. “Up to about 4 months, you can pass a baby from person to person and the baby would be pretty good about it. Around 4 months, they’re very aware of leaving their caretaker.”

Baby Bryan was abducted from his 23-year-old mother, Maria de Fatima Ramos Dos Santos, on Dec. 1 by a Hispanic woman wielding a knife, authorities say. Ramos Dos Santos said she willingly entered the suspect’s car with her child and a friend also carrying a baby, to show the woman how to get to Pine Manor, a Fort Myers neighborhood, after the suspect repeatedly pleaded with the women.

On the way back to where the women entered the car, the suspect let out the other woman and child, but pushed Ramos Dos Santos back into the car. The woman then drove south to Estero, where she stopped the black two-door Ford Explorer Sport edition, pointed a knife toward the child and told Ramos Dos Santos to exit the car. An Amber Alert was issued at 7:15 p.m. on Dec. 1.

“In the three months, the baby would change, but it wouldn’t be dramatic,” Sherman said. “It wouldn’t look that different than he looked before.”

A noticeable change in how the child looks would be around six or 12 months, Sherman said. On average babies double their weight at 4 months and triple it in a year, he said.

Detective Matt Sellers of the Fort Myers Police Department said investigators are “aggressively” tracking down “several vehicle leads that’s taking us all around the state of Florida and the country.” But he said how fast the baby is likely growing will present challenges as the investigation lingers.

Progression sketches of missing persons are updated about every two years, said Stephen Loftin, forensic imaging specialist for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Though Baby Bryan has gained weight and inches, building a progression sketch for a 4-month-old baby who has been missing three months is unprecedented, Loftin said.

“An infant looks like an infant to most people,” Loftin said. “If there’s not enough maturity there it’s going to be very difficult.”

Forensic sketch artists typically use siblings and past family photos to compose a progression sketch of missing children with varying accuracy. Sketches are only intended to represent a likeness of a person, but not the detail of a photograph, Loftin said. Progression sketches are even more the artist’s interpretation of what the missing person might look like, he said.

“Unfortunately CSI in Hollywood gives this idea that science can do this,” he said. “No, science can’t do this.”

Karen Taylor, a forensic artist based in Austin, Texas, said little information is available for artists to refer when compiling a progression sketch for an infant. She also added that more time would need to pass before an artist would attempt a sketch.

“A reasonable amount of time needs to have lapsed in order to make this process potentially useful,” Taylor said. “The process of doing a child age progression involves anatomical knowledge...incorporated with any photographic information about the parents and siblings and immediate family members.”

Sellers wouldn’t comment on if an age progression will be considered in the investigation. He said focusing on the suspect — described as a Hispanic woman between 28 and 30 years old, 5 feet 4 inches tall with straight black hair — and keeping tabs on sightings of the vehicle has kept the investigation moving.

“There has been positive results to getting information out to the public,” Sellers said. “The public is aware of what’s happening and is still interested in bringing this baby home.”

http://www.bonitanews.com/news/2007/mar/03/search_baby_bryan_continues_becoming_more_difficul/?print=1

Parents hope for missing baby's return


By Jacob Ogles and Danny Paskin

Originally posted on June 01, 2007



In the front room of Bryan dos Santos Gomes’ home, a swing set awaits his return.
At 7 months old, Bryan should be able to sit up in the swing seat on his own.

He should be dropping things from the edge to see them fall. At this age, Bryan should recognize his own name, and turn when it is said.

But Bryan isn’t home, and likely would not to respond by his given name. Six months ago today, the infant was snatched from his mother’s arms at knifepoint before his mother was left on the roadside in Estero, police said.

He was 28 days old.

Maria Fatima Ramos dos Santos and husband Jurandir Gomes Costa now wait anxiously the discovery of their son. Will they ever see their child again?

“As long as Bryan is still gone, we will still fight,” Costa said in his native Portuguese.
In an exclusive interview with The News-Press, the parents detailed attempts to stay optimistic, as well as frustrations with the investigation.

Costa described the way his life has been altered by the loss of his son, and by the painful rejection he experienced from employers in the Fort Myers community.
“In these six months, there hasn’t been one day, one minute, that I forget my son, whether I’m home or working,” Ramos dos Santos said.

Some baby items that once decorated the home are now gone. A baby gym on the front porch has disappeared. The foyer of the family’s tiny Fort Myers mobile home, once a combination shrine to Bryan and media command center, is now the family washroom.

But Bryan’s presence is still in the household.

A picture of Bryan is the wallpaper on the father’s computer desktop, and 18 printed fliers about his son’s disappearance remain taped to the windows of Costa’s car. In the parents’ bedroom, Bryan’s crib is still assembled, filled to the brim with toys and baby clothes he has likely outgrown.

Ramos dos Santos said she still hopes the kidnapper will return her child.
“Six months I’m thinking, ‘It’s tomorrow, it’s tomorrow,’ and nothing,” she said. “Up to today that day has never come. But it will come.”

In addition to losing a child, Costa lost his income after the kidnapping. A tile installer, Costa said it was hard to work for weeks after the kidnapping.

When he was ready, he could no longer find work in Lee County.

Thanks to media reports, possible employers knew he could be busy with the police to go over the case at any time. And that he was an undocumented immigrant smuggled into the country illegally.

“It got really hard to find work; no one wanted to call me in.”

He and his wife recently started part-time jobs at a restaurant in Naples almost an hour from their home.

While the community at large seemed supportive at first, Costa was saddened how quickly Bryan’s kidnapping became old news.

“Every now and then, people will stop me and ask about the investigation, but it is not like it used to be,” he said.

Once the subject of international coverage, the kidnapping has faded from media attention.

The story garnered attention in part for a theory put forward by Police Chief Hilton Daniels that the child was taken as retribution for the family’s smuggling debt. Costa never understood why the theory was floated. Costa’s opinions of the police now are complicated, he said.

“I think they are still working hard on the case,” Costa said. “I hope they are.”
He meets with a police officer once a week, and is in regular contact with an FBI victim’s advocate.

The father is frustrated so little progress has been made in the search. Costa wonders if a more active stance was taken that first night, might he already have his boy back?

Costa has not hired an immigration lawyer, he said, but doesn’t fear deportation.
“Nobody would send us home while we are still waiting for Bryan,” he said.
That doesn’t mean no one has called for it. Anti-immigration activists have called for the parents’ deportation or arrest.

If Bryan was returned tomorrow, Costa does not know what he would do next. He might return to Brazil, to his very hometown, or he might try to stay.

But until that day comes, he said he is staying put.

“No matter how long it takes, we will be here,” he said.

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070601/NEWS0110/70601006/1075

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March 2nd, 2011
Bryan Dos Santos Gomes: Nancy Grace America's Missing

As two young mothers waited with their infant children at a bus stop they were approached by a woman seeking directions. The woman said she was lost, from out of town and trying to get to a relative’s home to get her baby.
Bryan Dos Santos Gomes
Bryan Dos Santos Gomes

The mothers gave the best directions they could and then boarded their bus. When the two got off they were greeted again by the woman begging for them to show her how to get to her destination, even offering money. Noticing the baby car seat in the back of the car the two woman got in the vehicle. By the end of the drive the woman, described as a Hispanic female between the ages of 28 and 30, demanded one of the mothers, Maria Dos Santos, leave her 28 day old baby Bryan in the vehicle. With a knife pointed at the baby’s throat the mother did what she thought she had to do to save her child. He and the abductor have not been seen again.

Tipline: 1-800-THE-LOST
Missing Since: 12/1/06
Missing From: Ft. Myers, FL
Classification: Endangered Missing
Age at Disappearance: 28 days
Weight: 12 lbs
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black

Suspect Description:
-Hispanic Female
-Age: 28-30 yrs old
-Height: 5’3”
-Heavy build

Vehicle Description:
-Black two-door 1998 to 2003 Ford Explorer
-Peeling window tint