Amid a surge of unconfirmed circulating claims about missing persons and attempted kidnappings across social media and private messaging platforms, the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force (RSLPF) has issued a urgent public appeal urging citizens to refrain from sharing unvetted information. The police force emphasized that unfounded rumors not only trigger widespread unnecessary panic across the island nation, but also create significant barriers to active, ongoing criminal investigations.
The official public statement, released Wednesday, addressed growing concerns about unregulated information spreading through digital channels, covering everything from unconfirmed reports of missing people to false allegations of kidnapping attempts. RSLPF underlined that only information officially confirmed and released by the department should be treated as fact by the public.
Alongside the warning, police released a formal update on the status of missing persons reports filed between the start of August and September 14. In total, 11 missing person reports were submitted to the department over this six-week period. Nine of these cases have already been successfully closed, with all missing individuals located and returned to safety unharmed. Only one open case remains active: 59-year-old James Hunter Noel, commonly known by the nickname “Ti Jame” and a resident of Fond Joyeux in Vieux Fort, is still unaccounted for.
Police also confirmed the identity of a body recovered along the Millennium Highway on September 11: the deceased was 21-year-old Merissa Auguste, who had been reported missing just 24 hours before the discovery. A post-mortem examination conducted on September 14 determined that Auguste’s cause of death was strangulation. To date, two people of interest have been taken into police custody, and are currently assisting the department’s Major Crimes Unit with their ongoing probe into the death.
Beyond the case updates, RSLPF detailed the scope of the misinformation it has observed in recent days: unauthenticated voice notes, wildly exaggerated claims about criminal activity, and statements falsely presented as official police communications have all spread widely across local digital networks. The department explained that this unvetted sharing does more than stoke public fear: it can put community members at unnecessary risk and compromise the integrity of active investigations by compromising witness testimony or alerting suspects to investigative strategy.
To curb the spread of harmful misinformation, police are urging all residents to cross-check any information related to crimes or missing persons with RSLPF directly before sharing it to personal or public networks. They also warned members of the public against confronting anyone suspected of criminal activity based solely on unconfirmed online claims, as this could put both the individual and the community in danger.
The department also noted that some forms of false sharing may violate Saint Lucia’s Computer Misuse Act, and warned that formal legal action could be pursued against individuals found to have knowingly shared harmful, unlawful misinformation. For community members with legitimate information related to ongoing criminal cases or suspicious activity, RSLPF encouraged reports through official, established channels, including the dedicated Crime Hotline at 555.