The investigation into the disappearance of 2-year-old Angelo Tobias Plaza from his Tobago residence has taken new steps, with law enforcement officials questioning both the toddler’s mother Kalifah Tobias and stepfather Shannon Miller as probes into the case intensified. After the hours-long questioning, the pair was escorted back to their Goodwood Bay home, located just a short distance from where search teams continued their work to locate the missing child.
Local news outlet The Express witnessed the couple being transported in an unmarked police vehicle, while Angelo’s biological father, Antonio Plaza, and his grandmother Meena Balliram watched on from a distance. The two had traveled to Tobago from the neighboring island of Trinidad earlier that same day, desperate for updates on the boy’s fate.
In an interview with The Express, Antonio Plaza described the agony of losing his only son, saying the uncertainty has left him psychologically shattered. “I feel like I am losing my mind. I am not feeling human again. I just want closure right now. I just want to know. I want a thorough investigation. Make sure you do it properly. I have faith in the (police) officers,” Plaza shared. He added that he had previously been granted limited access to see his son, and urged other parents to take the case as a warning: “I find this should be an example to be more vigilant of your children,” he said.
Angelo was first reported missing from his Goodwood Bay home on Monday night. Since his disappearance, multi-disciplinary search teams have carried out extensive land, sea, and aerial operations to locate the toddler across the surrounding area.
On the day of the questioning, Allan Stewart, director of the Tobago Emergency Management Agency (TEMA), announced that the operation was being shifted from active search and rescue to a recovery mission. “We think we are dealing with a recovery, we think this…is not a search and rescue of a person; there is a strong feeling, based on the information that is coming up, that they did confirm they saw a child in the water,” Stewart explained.
Stewart noted that while the mission has changed scope, emergency teams remain committed to bringing answers to the grieving family. “We continue to be optimistic that a level of closure can be had, and we want to give the public the assurance that we at TEMA are doing all in our power to support the TTPS and the other agencies that are involved in the search. We would continue to do so with the hope and the plans that we have to bring closure to this incident,” he added.