BRYAN DOS SANTOS - 29 Days (2006) - Fort Myers FL

As a mother, she’s already lost a great deal. Now, Maria De Fatima
Ramos Dos Santos is bracing to lose more.

The mother of infant Bryan Dos Santos, whose 2006 abduction at
knife-point captured national attention, expects her husband to be
deported to Brazil soon. Jurandir Gomes Costa, 29, was arrested last
year for driving without a license, one week before the birth of his
third child, Christopher. Today he’s in an immigration facility in Broward County.

Dos Santos, 26, is appealing to the public, and authorities, to ask
that she and her husband be allowed to remain in the country until Bryan
is found. If Gomes Costa leaves, she’ll have to leave, too, she said.

“If I leave this country now, it’s like I gave up my son,” she said.



She spoke at the home of a friend and translator in south Fort Myers,
her two young children beside her. Pig-tailed Kimberly, 2, squirmed on
the couch and played with her sandals. Christopher, 6 months, nestled
into his mother’s lap and slept. Neither has met their older brother.


Age progression


Baby Bryan was 29 days old when taken from Dos Santos, on Dec. 1,
2006. Under the pretense of needing directions, a woman driving a black
SUV asked Dos Santos to enter her vehicle in Central Fort Myers. The
woman drove south to Estero Parkway, where she forced the mother out at
knife-point and sped away with Bryan.

The news spawned a media storm, and it was fed by a rapidly evolving
investigation. Fort Myers Police detectives first called the kidnapping a
random act. Days later, then-chief Hilton Daniels announced the
kidnapping was linked to the smuggler who brought Dos Santos and her
husband into the country in 2005. The parents denied it, but media
reports focused on the story.

Bryan was never found. Media attention waned, and the case entered a
lull, at least in the public eye.

Today, lead detective Matt Sellers says he’s confident the kidnapping
was a random act, and he believes it can still be solved. He needs Dos
Santos in the country as a witness, he said, but he isn’t sure about
Gomes Costa.

“He’s not really a witness in the case, but I don’t know how
immigration handles that,” Sellers said.

Gomes Costa was arrested on Nov. 29, 2009, after a Lee County
Sheriff’s deputy stopped the family minivan for speeding. A license
check ended with his arrest, and Dos Santos and Kimberly hitched a ride
back home with a tow truck.

Christopher was born one week later. A family friend took the child
to the jail so Gomes Costa could see it. The undocumented Dos Santos
couldn’t make the trip.

On December 10, the jail turned Gomes Costa over to the Immigrations
and Customs Enforcement Agency. The removal order was issued long ago,
Dos Santos said, shortly after her husband entered the country.

“He’s being held there like anyone would be on immigration
violation,” said ICE spokeswoman Danielle Bennett. She wouldn’t
elaborate about deportation.

Dos Santos doesn’t have an order in her name, she said, but she’s
still seeking a special visa. Known as a U Visa, it applies to
undocumented crime victims, permitting them to stay in the country for
four years if they can prove they’ve suffered serious harm.

Maria Jose Fletcher, director of the Lucha Project at the Florida
Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami, said the visas are typically used in
domestic violence and human trafficking cases but apply to most violent
crimes. She said both parents sounded eligible.

“It’s not about witnessing the crime,” she said. “It’s about being
the victim of a crime.”

Applicants must be certified as victims by a law enforcement agency,
and they must be able to prove physical or psychological harm, typically
through medical or counseling records. The crime doesn’t have to be
recent, Fletcher said.

Gomes Costa has an attorney, but it’s unclear if he’s applying for a U
Visa. Dos Santos said Fort Myers Police promised a certification for
her husband, although Sellers declined to say.

Dos Santos said she knows she and Gomes Costa did something wrong by
arriving illegally, but she hopes sympathy can outweigh the
transgression.

“The people who make the decision, if they could put themselves in
our place--to have a son kidnapped and have to leave him behind,” she said.

She knows sympathy has been rare in her case.

When Dos Santos talks about the scrutiny she’s faced, the young
mother twists the gold chain around her neck, and at times her voice
grows angry and her words flow fast. The translator asks her to slow down.

“I think the majority doesn’t believe us,” she said.

The Brazilian community doesn’t trust them, she said. New friends
made in the wake of the kidnapping disappeared after the media left.
Investigators still come by with questions, she said, and they try to
trap her every time.

They point out renovations to the trailer and ask where the money
came from; they say they have a letter from a smuggler; and they say the
parents failed a lie detector in 2006. But they won’t show them the test, she said.

They suggested a confession could spring Gomes Costa from custody.

“If my husband being released depends on what I say, then he will not
be released, because I’ve told them everything,” Dos Santos said.

Sellers, the Fort Myers detective, said he’s had strict control of
the case for years now, and he believes no one from the FBI or Florida
Department of Law Enforcement -- both heavily involved in the early days
-- would visit the couple without his knowledge. He also said he
wouldn’t pressure the family in such ways.

“If that is happening, it shouldn’t be happening,” he said.

Sellers is apologetic about the case’s history, particularly Daniels’
announcement about a smuggling link. From the beginning, he said, Dos
Santos’ account divided investigators within his agency and others.

“There were times when tensions were high as far as who believed her
and who didn’t,” Sellers explained.

Those battles are over, he said. The clincher for him came days after
Daniels’ announcement, when a Fort Myers woman reported that she, too,
had been approached by a woman in a black SUV who needed directions. The
potential victim was a grandmother strolling her infant on Metro
Parkway, hours before Baby Bryan was kidnapped.

Her details meshed well with Dos Santos’ account. At one point, both
women picked the same mugshot from a photo lineup. The woman in the
photo was later weeded out as a suspect, but Sellers was excited by the
identical results.

“I was happy,” he said. “It was like, finally, something I can stand on.”

He thinks Bryan is no longer in Southwest Florida. Dos Santos thinks
otherwise. She and her husband have posted signs in LaBelle and
Immokalee, she said. She wants a friend to start a blog about the search.

“Because he went missing here, I believe he is here,” she said.

She wants to be here when he’s found, she said, but she’ll leave if
her husband is deported.

Gomes Costa paid the bills as a construction worker. She’s getting
help now from a church and a government program for rent and utilities.

“What’s harder is not having him for emotional support,” Dos Santos said.

He calls every day from the facility. She can’t visit due to her
legal status. Dos Santos instead remains with the children for 24 hours,
and she said her thoughts often turn to Bryan. When she had
Christopher, she saw Bryan.

They could put an ankle bracelet on her husband, she suggested.
Whatever keeps him in the country while the search goes on. Dos Santos
appeals to anyone in charge.

“We have no place to run,” she said.

Those with any information about the Baby Bryan case should call the
Fort Myers Police Department at 239-321-7700 or leave an anonymous tip
at Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers, 1-800-780-TIPS (8477).

Bryan Dos Santos Gomes: Nancy Grace America's Missing


Bryan Dos Santos Gomes

As two young mothers waited with their infant children at a bus stop they were approached by a woman seeking directions. The woman said she was lost, from out of town and trying to get to a relative’s home to get her baby.

The mothers gave the best directions they could and then boarded their bus. When the two got off they were greeted again by the woman begging for them to show her how to get to her destination, even offering money. Noticing the baby car seat in the back of the car the two woman got in the vehicle. By the end of the drive the woman, described as a Hispanic female between the ages of 28 and 30, demanded one of the mothers, Maria Dos Santos, leave her 28 day old baby Bryan in the vehicle. With a knife pointed at the baby’s throat the mother did what she thought she had to do to save her child. He and the abductor have not been seen again.

Tipline: 1-800-THE-LOST
Missing Since: 12/1/06
Missing From: Ft. Myers, FL
Classification: Endangered Missing
Age at Disappearance: 28 days
Weight: 12 lbs
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black

Suspect Description:
-Hispanic Female
-Age: 28-30 yrs old
-Height: 5’3”
-Heavy build

Vehicle Description:
-Black two-door 1998 to 2003 Ford Explorer
-Peeling window tint

http://nancygrace.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/02/bryan-dos-santos-gomes-nancy-grace-americas-missing/

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