Last month, we pointed out the discrepancy between two New York City women who had gone missing within one week of each other. Karina Vetrano, 30, and Maylin Reynoso, 20, were both worthy of receiving media attention in the wake of their tragic passings, but the latter—a Dominican-American from The Bronx—undeniably fell on the opposite side of the favorability spectrum.
Today, we learn yet another young Latina has gone missing. Aaliyah Ramos, a 12-year-old Puerto Rican girl, has been missing from Bushwick, Brooklyn since Tuesday night (Sept. 6). The most cursory of Google searches will show you that Ramos hasn’t garnered any major headlines whatsoever. No need to point out that her name, of Hispanic origin, has yet to enter the Amber Alert system.
Her mother, Jamie Piñero, tells us her daughter slipped out of her home with two male friends from school. “I was putting away groceries and speaking with someone very ill over the phone when [Aaliyah’s friend] asked if they could go to the park,” she says. “I told [Aaliyah] no, and when I turned around to hand her something to drink, she was gone.”
We asked Detective Nasser at the NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information (DCPI) how one earns an Amber Alert, to which he replied: “If they suspect a kid has been kidnapped, or abducted for more than a certain period—it’s really up to the local police.”
“That part I don’t understand,” says Piñero, who is currently riddled with depression at home waiting for any news on her daughter’s whereabouts, “[police] said an Amber Alert is only for children who have been abducted. But [Aaliyah] is clearly missing, what does it matter?”
Piñero says that police allege that the one boy who returned home said they all went to Coney Island, and that he last saw Aaliyah on the train he rode back with her. “She slept in the park with the boy that went home [Wednesday], in Coney Island. The boy still missing with my daughter—his mother hasn’t even reported her own son missing.”
Patch.com describes Ramos as “a young girl with black hair, a light complexion and brown eyes, standing about five feet five inches tall and weighing 108 pounds.” She was last seen clad in a multi-colored shirt, blue jeans, and gray, white and blue sneakers.
Anyone with information on this missing person can confidentially report it using the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers website or by anonymously calling the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
Los hispanohablantes pueden llamar 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).