“I know he’s alive”: Renewed Search for Missing Infant

Maria Ramos Dos Santos has searched for her missing son, Bryan, every day for the last 18 years. For the first time publicly, Maria and her husband are speaking out about the frightening abduction and their hope for answers.

Now, with new investigators on the case, and a new image from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, can we finally bring Bryan Dos Santos Gomes home?

On Dec. 1, 2006, Maria and her friend Janice were leaving a doctor’s office in Fort Myers with their babies when they say a woman in a dark SUV approached them. She told them she was from Tampa and needed directions to a nearby neighborhood called Pine Manor, where she said her mother lived.

Maria and Janice told her they couldn’t help and continued on, boarding a bus to head home. Then later, when Maria, Janice and their two babies exited the bus, this unknown woman suddenly reappeared, having followed them, and again asked for help.

This time was different. Maria, Janice and the babies got into the woman's vehicle, and they directed the woman to Pine Manor. Once they arrived, the woman claimed she saw her mother’s car and started to drive the group back. This was the beginning of a nightmare.

When the unknown woman stopped to let them out, Janice and her daughter got out first – but then detectives say the driver pulled a knife and forced Maria and baby Bryan to stay...then sped off.

“I was so nervous,” said Maria. “I screamed to Janice, ‘She has a knife. She is crazy.’” Janice shouted for help, flagged down a passerby and called 911.

Meanwhile Maria and Bryan were driven about 15 miles away to a church parking lot in Estero, Florida. There, the driver forced Maria out of the vehicle at knifepoint.

“I yelled, ‘Take me home, take me home,’” said Maria. “Give me Bryan. Let me take Bryan.”  The woman didn’t listen. She drove off with baby Bryan. This was the last time Bryan Dos Santos Gomes was seen.

“My wife called me...she said Bryan is gone,” Jurandir told NCMEC. “I drove very fast and when I got home, there were so many police cars. I was so upset. I was like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.’”

Last seen location of Bryan Dos Santos Gomes: 20601 Three Oaks Parkway, Estero, Florida. (Credit: NCMEC)

Today, 18 years later, Fort Myers detectives Richard Harasym and Mike Iarossi are leading the investigation. They submitted Maria’s clothes and Janice’s cell phone from that day for DNA testing.

“It could lead us to the kidnapper or at least someone else who was in that vehicle,” Harasym said.

NCMEC is also releasing a new image, created by a forensic artist, to show what Bryan might look like today at 18 years old.

Bryan Dos Santos Gomes at 28 days and his age-progression to 18. (Credit: NCMEC)

Another critical piece of evidence: the suspect’s voice. During the ride, the abductor used Janice’s phone to make a call – supposedly to her mother. But investigators say the number she dialed reached an answering machine at a business, Griffin Industries, also known as Shaw Irrigation, located at 8181 Kantanga Court in Fort Myers. Police recovered that message and are hoping someone in the public might recognize her voice. Listen here.

Here's what detectives know: 

• Heavyset, Hispanic female, late 20s at the time (in 2006).
• Drove a late 1990s black SUV, possibly a Ford Explorer.
• Claimed she had just given birth to a baby boy named Jose Guadalupe days before Dec.1, 2006 by C-section.
• Had a car seat and diaper bag in the vehicle.
• May have known someone who worked at Griffin Industries in 2006.
• Claimed her husband was a truck driver and worked in the Dallas area.
• A similar incident was reported that same day in Fort Meyers – a woman out with her grandson was approached by a dark SUV, but refused to get in. She reported the incident after seeing Bryan’s story on the news.

Sketch of the suspect and a similar SUV she was driving. (Credit: Fort Myers Police Department)

One theory is that the kidnapper may have been seeking to replace a baby she lost – or one she never had. This is a common motive for infant abductions, and we track those cases here at NCMEC. There have been 345 infants abducted since 1964. Sixteen of those children, including Bryan, are still missing.

“Everyone has to feel for them and everyone's goal should be to find baby Bryan,” said Detective Harasym. “It is heart wrenching. We have to get these parents their child back.”

“He’s going to come home,” Maria said. “Some people tell me he died, but I am his mom and I say no. He is not dead and every day I look. One day he come home.”

If you know anything about the abduction of Bryan Dos Santos Gomes, call NCMEC at 1-800-843-5678 or the Fort Myers Police Department at 239-321-7700.

You can learn more about infant abductions here: https://www.missingkids.org/theissues/infantabductions.