After 25 days of being missing, a 13-year-old Trinidadian girl who had been removed from her mother’s custody amid a police investigation has been found safe. But what should have been a moment of relief quickly turned into national controversy, after a live social media broadcast by the leader of the search team exposed the minor’s identity and publicly reprimanded her, sparking widespread condemnation from the public, law enforcement, and the girl’s family.
The girl is now in the care of her aunt, who has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of how the recovery operation was handled. Speaking in a public video statement released this week, the aunt explained that she first learned her niece had been located not through official channels, but via social media. While she expressed sincere gratitude to all volunteers who dedicated time and resources to finding the teenager, she questioned the ethical judgment of broadcasting the minor’s face and interrogating her in front of a live audience.
“This is a minor, a child,” the aunt emphasized in her statement, noting that the girl had already been removed from her mother’s care over allegations of sexual abuse before she went missing. “Why did you all publish my niece and question her like that on public media?” She has since threatened legal action against the search team for defaming her niece, and pushed back against unsubstantiated claims that she refused to assist in the search. She also alleged that members of the search team entered her home uninvited, accessed her car without permission, spoke to neighbors without authorization, and spread false rumors about her.
In an official statement released yesterday, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) confirmed that the teenager is safe and receiving targeted support from the Children’s Authority, and that the Special Victims Department has launched an investigation into the inappropriate public exposure of the minor. The girl was located on Friday by the Hunters Search and Rescue Team, led by Shamshudeen Ayube, who also found a 49-year-old man on the premises with the teenager. During the livestream, Ayube showed the girl’s unblurred face and publicly addressed her, saying, “You know you have been missing for days and you were with this fella, this kinda hardback man.”
The video quickly went viral, racking up more than 500,000 views, thousands of likes, and hundreds of shares across social platforms. Hundreds of users voiced their support for the teenager, condemning the public revelation of her identity, the condescending tone used to address her, and the unprofessional handling of a minor’s recovery. While a small number of users defended Ayube’s team, citing the grueling work of volunteer search operations, the overwhelming majority of public commentary has been critical.
The controversy has also exposed a rift between two separate groups operating under the same “Hunters Search and Rescue Team” name. A separate group led by veteran educator Vallence Rambharat, which formed during the high-profile search for Andrea Bharatt, issued a statement clarifying its long-standing policy for handling missing minors, developed in coordination with the TTPS. Under Rambharat’s team policy, once a missing child is located, the group immediately contacts the local police station responsible for the case to allow law enforcement to take custody of the minor. “We do not transport minors in our vehicles, nor do we publish their pictures,” the group stated, adding that it has always adhered to a policy of discreet collaboration with police in missing child cases. “In this said case, two adults are already before the courts because our team worked quietly with the police. A child is a child and we must respect that at all times.” The aunt also confirmed that she received consistent assistance from a member of Rambharat’s group, whom she knows as “Mr Hulk,” from the very start of the search.
When reached for comment by the *Sunday Express* amid the growing backlash, Ayube, a 2026 national award recipient whose team identifies itself as the “registered” Hunters Search and Rescue Team, pushed back against his critics. He argued that volunteer search teams face grueling conditions that most armchair advocates do not understand, noting that his team spent days searching through heavy rain, sweltering heat, and dangerous terrain to locate the teenager. “She is not the first and she will not be last. Tell them that the Hunters Search and Rescue Team is telling the advocates and the concerned citizens to join them when they are out on missions to look for missing persons, and see what they have to go through when they have to spend their own money from their own pocket and time to locate these individuals,” Ayube said. He added that he found the girl “lying in a drain in mud like a pig,” and argued that critics who stay at home instead of volunteering for search operations have no standing to complain. “Let them join up and see what we had to go through days of rain and night and sun to look for this girl… That is what you call advocate, not sitting down home and making money while children are missing.”