A terrified mum today told how she fears she will never see her teenage son again after he vanished while on holiday with his dad. Rebecca Jones, 35, said her oldest boy Jayden, 13, was meant to return with Andrew Pearson, 33, following a ten-day trip to the Algarve in Portugal last September.
Rebecca has reported her son missing to police in the UK and Portugal. She has now made an appeal for her son to come home just over a month before he turns 14, saying: “We just want to celebrate your birthday, Jayden.”
Rebecca, an NHS healthcare assistant, said: “He went on holiday, and I had no reason to think he would not come home."
She added: "Every day I think, 'Will I ever see my eldest boy again?' I just want him home where he belongs."
Rebecca said: "His birthday is coming up soon. As a family, we will try and make it special, but it’s not going to be the same without him.”
Rebecca had retained custody of Jayden and his brother, Mathew, 11, since 2019 after her relationship broke down with Andrew. She'd agreed that he could take their eldest son on the trip before he started a new school year.
Rebecca said the pair were booked on a 6.45pm flight and were due to arrive at East Midlands Airport on September 14 last year at about 10pm. She had a taxi waiting for them, but she was left frantic when the pair failed to show up.
She said: “At first, I kept trying to call him, kept trying to text him. I thought something had happened. I thought he might have had an accident.
“It was just a holiday. When he didn’t return I was numb, I was worried, I was scared and I was heartbroken.”
Rebecca said she had kept trying to reach Andrew and when that failed, she reported him and her son as missing to UK police on around September 22 last year.
The mum went on to create posters and shared them on social media in the hope that someone would see Jayden’s face and identify his whereabouts.
Andrew was sighted and photographed at a farm resort in the Nazaré region of Portugal, 250 miles from Lagos. Rebecca flew out to Portugal on January 22 this year, in the hope of finding Jayden before reporting them both as missing to local authorities six days later.
She said local police had searched the farm resort where Andrew was spotted three times.
Jayden's 14 birthday will be on May 11.
A South Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “We can confirm we have received a report and we are treating Andrew and Jayden as missing persons.”
