The family of Lee-Verno Van Wyk, a preschooler who disappeared in 2022 from Louisvaleweg in Upington, says they remain in emotional limbo four years after his disappearance. The young boy vanished while playing with friends after school, and despite initial community-led search efforts and a police investigation, no trace of him has been found.
Maxwell van Wyk, Lee-Verno’s uncle, expressed the family’s ongoing anguish. “It breaks my heart to see his parents suffer every day,” he said. “We constantly worry if he is warm, if he has eaten, and where he is sleeping. The whole family is stuck in limbo and we cannot find peace because we do not know what happened to our boy.” He noted that while police initially assisted with searches of the community, farms, and railway lines, physical search efforts have since ceased, though the case remains officially open. “Our biggest fear is that everyone will just forget about it,” he added.
The Van Wyk family’s ordeal reflects a broader and growing concern across South Africa. Just last week, a Northern Cape mother reported her 25-year-old son, Iman Manzana, missing after he was last seen in May getting off a taxi near Colesberg. In Upington, another family continues to hope for the return of Charlene Julius, who went missing in 2021.
Missing Children South Africa has raised urgent alarms about the frequency of such cases. Bianca van Aswegen, a spokesperson for the organization, emphasized that while comprehensive national statistics are unavailable, the volume of reports received is deeply troubling. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the proper numbers, but it’s a daily occurrence,” van Aswegen stated. “Every single day, we’ve got multiple cases being reported to our organization, whether it’s children or adults. We are facing a crisis in South Africa with children going missing, especially when it comes to kidnapping and human trafficking and children running away from home due to abuse. This is something that’s a daily occurrence in our country and we really need to up our safety in our country for our children.”
Police have confirmed that the investigation into Lee-Verno Van Wyk’s disappearance remains active, though there are no new developments to report at this time. Meanwhile, the Van Wyk family has vowed to continue their search and is appealing to the public for any information that could help bring Lee-Verno home.
