THE STORY OF LITTLE JOHN RAFAEL KOVALSKI

[AXJ USA]

THE STORY OF LITTLE JOHN RAFAEL KOVALSKI OF BRAZIL

Brazil, 24th august 2013. Adrianopolis town, metropolitan region of Curitiba, State of Paraná, countryside neighborhood Capelinha.

It´s been three months since John Rafael Kovalski is missing.

This little two-year-old little boy named John Rafael was playing in the backyard of his house when suddenly he disappeared.

Some minutes of distraction were enough for him to disappear from home so that the family´s drama started. With no financial support to hire a private investigation office and with no support from Brazilian TV or Police, the desperate parents Luke and Lorraine started a thrilling appeal on Facebook with the page Todos Juntos por João Rafael Kovalksi [All together for John Rafael Kovalski] reaching more than 180 thousand people in order to denounce their son’s disappearance throughout Brazil, Europe and USA.

Today, after three months, the page counts with loyal followers and several groups in favor of the disappearance of this child. Brasil quer saber aonde esta Joao Rafael Kowalki. [Brazil wants to know where John Rafael Kovalski is] https://www.facebook.com/groups/249985735157054/?fref=ts Adrianópolis juntos por Joao Rafael Kovalski. [Adrianopolis together for John Rafael] https://www.facebook.com/groups/691317294229370/?fref=ts E Todos juntos por Rafael Kovaski grupo. [All together for John Rafael] https://www.facebook.com/groups/387400544696907/?notif_t=group_r2j_...

The mother, Lorraine, tells that family and friends sought the entire region, including a river nearby the house, but nothing was found, what leads the police to suspect an international child abduction.

The most recent data disposed by ABCD - pela Associação Brasileira de Busca e Defesa de Crianças Desaparecidas [Brazilian Association of Missing Children Seeking and Defense] show that more the seven thousand people, including children, teens and adults disappear in Brazil each year and, curiously 23 are from Parana State, like John.

Both the association, organized by mothers seeking their missing children, as the Brazilian federal government through Human Right Secretary have no actualized data.

In Paraná State data are from 2011.

According to the mother, the possibility that John has walked alone until the river are minimal, once he is still learning how to walk and he would need to pass by an area of difficult access. "He would have no chances to get there so quickly without falling and getting hurt along the way," she believes.

Luke, the father, believes that the police already have some clues about the crime, but not to derail the investigation the family is not informed about the details. “After what occurred to us, we were informed that this happens in Paraná frequently and the prime suspicion is international child abduction”.

This suspect is also known by Brazilian Politicians and Government but little is done to reduce this traffic! Cities from south and southeast of Brazil like Curitiba (Paraná State), Florianópolis State (Santa Catarina State) and Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul State) are the most affected by human trafficking.

The white color of the skin, blond hair and bluish eyes contribute to the alarming number of children in these states who simply disappear out of nowhere.

In the case of the baby John Rafael, police believes that he had drowned in the river just behind the land where they live with the grandparents because the kid’s cap was found in the banks of the river, but, the commander in chief of the fire department Daniel, and the parents do not believe in this version of the story since the river is hard to be accessed by such a small kid, and before the site there is a fence, and before it there is a rut that little John could never have raised!

Besides that, the soft earth in the banks of the river should have at least left the boy's footprints.

To reach the water, John would need to literally escape opening or jumping a wooden tall gate and walk down the irregular stairs.

In addition, neighbors and the Fire Department conducted searches for several days on the river and did not find the boy's body.

But what if this kid really passed by the bridge and rolled or slid down the ravine and dropped in the river?

The Captain of the Fireman says that on the day of the disappearance of little John Rafael the waters were clear and calm, what facilitated the search, but nothing was found!

Weighing about 15 kg - the little boy’s body, in the case of drowning, would have already appeared in the banks.

The family suspects that a couple may have kidnapped the boy. According to the father, a black car from Tiete city (Sao Paulo state) stopped in front of the house to ask some information and after that the mother realized the baby wasn’t there anymore.

This couple didn´t want to identify themselves and lowered slightly the dark glass of the car’s window as they did not want to be seen… nobody took note about the car plate since nobody suspected anything, so the family realized the baby disappeared and connected one fact to the other!

Since the kidnapping, the family spread his photos around the city and started a campaign through social web looking for little John. “it´s been a nightmare. It’s a part of me that was took away but I am sure I will find him” – says the crying mother, Lorraine Kovalski.

They remember that at eleven in the morning when the boy was playing in the backyard of his grandparent´s house the boy decided to look for his mom. Both houses share the same wall with an open gate that the kids were used to pass by several times every day (the four kids: John and his 3 siblings), but the boy, who was playing with his twin sister never reached his mother´s house.

The family lives in the countryside of Adrianopolis town, 130 km far from Curitiba.

The case happened five days before the boy’s and his sister’s two-year-old birthday.

Since the kidnapping, several groups formed by known people throughout Brazil have done marches to call president Dilma’s attention as well as that of national media and federal police.

During one of the protests the mother Lorraine mentioned a sad information: “I am worried a lot. I do believe my son is alive. In the week he was kidnapped I took the result of some health tests he took and I found that he has a heart condition and needs urgently medication and treatment. I please ask the person who took him to give me him back or at least to take the necessary cares” Also the father said: “here we are under this rain for this case not to be forgotten. We want an answer from the authorities about what happened to us. I miss my son a lot”. “Until now national TV did not care about the case, only the local TV helped us to show John Rafael to the world. What kind of Brazil is this?’ – says the mother against the system.

“In countries of Europe like Netherlands for instance, there´s the Amber Alert and TVs show the case, the government help, support and also protects the families! Here in Brazil we are helpless. I cannot give myself a day off crying or sick; I work daily looking for my son; I’m exhausted!”

The family is poor and lives in the countryside of the town and it is about a family composed by honest and simple people and until now they did not accept any kind of donation, only for materials for the marches like posters, flyers and banners in order to spread Brazil the face of little John. But they decided to answer the so many requests of people´s donation and opened a bank account in the name of the boy in order to hire a private detective, once police and federal departments of investigations prefer to believe the boy fell into the river instead of looking for him “This neglect is killing us inside, we are consumed daily as a lighted candle, we have no peace, rest, we feel abandoned by the authorities .... Not even the governor received us”

Through Facebook John Rafael’s famiy asked a friend who lives in S-Hertogenbosch, in Netherlands, named Cristina de Oliveira Lopes who works with Brazilian local media and very known in the country to help them, once there is a denounce about little Jonh was seen in Schipol (Airport in Amstersdan).

This friend promised to contact Brazilian Embassy and TV program VERMIST on TROS. But this denounce was not confirmed by SICRIDE (Brazilian agency that investigates missing children). The parents with desperate tears appeal to authorities with no result. POLICE HAS ALREADY RECEIVED MORE THAN A THOUSAND COMPLAINTS OF THIS CASE AT SICRIDE - Serviço de Investigação de Crianças Desaparecidas da Polícia Civil [Missing Children Investigation Service from Civil Police] receives daily more than 20 complaints about supposed places the boy could be and they already reached a thousand since August.

Although the high number of information received, the Commissioner of Police Mrs Araci Costa, from SICRIDE, assured that there´s no real evidences about where the boy could be. “The hypothesis is still kidnapping or death by drowning.

We receive lots of complaints, for example, the one that he was in extreme south of Brazil in Pelotas, Rio Grande do Su state, but, it was not true”.

The Commissioner also affirmed that lots of complaints about that supposed black car come to her daily. “Another complaint lead us to Londrina where another little boy who had an appearance like John’s: blond hair and blue eyes. I do appreciate the cooperation of the population and I guarantee that my team is working hard to solve this mysterious case”. Araci Costa also showed some doubts about the way the supposed kidnapping happened: “The mother was cleaning the house and there was a german shepherd guarding the house. What calls my attention is that no one realized anything strange. The drowning is also a hypothesis because we did not find the body. It is a very complex case”. The parents still believe in children abduction in the region and their son can be in any country is Europe.

They affirm: “Children like our son – light skin, blond hair, blue eyes – are the main target of the trafficking mafia as they pass unnoticed by European frontiers”.

The parents put all their hope and trust in European media and make an appeal through a friend for VERMIST/TROS in Netherlands.

They believe that if TV outside Brazil has a reporter do an article about little John, and about child abduction on Brazil, this will call the government´s attention and maybe they work harder in the case.

This mafia is real; it is there and our heads of state know about it. A friend asks: “What kind of Brazil is this? Host of the World Cup in 2014 and the world stage! But the reality of Brazil is another, and I well explicit the fact that neither the media nor the rulers care for these children”.

KIDNAPPING OF BRAZILIAN RICH CHILDREN APPEARS ON NATIONAL TV. But cases like little Jonh’s do not! And they unfortunately become statistics.

Many homes are destroyed, pain is spread in all parts of Brazil and our governors are not even worried in changing the laws that would force the media to show the faces of those missing children on TV. Lorraine (Jonh Rafael’s mom) says: “We were abandoned by our heads of state. This may be a lifetime fight but we will not give up looking for our baby”. Thanks from Brazil.

* Contact: Mr. Fernando Francischini ( Federal Police responsible for the arrest of Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, a Colombian trafficker ).

Written by Cristina de Oliveira Lopes S-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.