FAMILIES FACE AGONIZING WAIT
Didn’t return from trip to drugstore
A little before 10 p.m. on March 9,
a popular young pastor, accompanied by a close family friend, walked in to a Jean Coutu in Ahuntsic and bought a transit pass for his younger brother. Then they vanished. More than two weeks later, police are stumped by the pair’s disappearance. Their families are sick with worry and desperate for answers.
Tracy Gyemfie attended church two weeks ago and then spent the rest of day cooking and doing laundry for her son Kobie Courage Agbezorlie, a deeply religious young man who is a pastor in Montreal’s north end.
Agbezorlie, known as Pastor Kobie to his friends, was going to be taking care of his 17-year-old brother, Phanuel, that week and their mother wanted to make sure there was enough food in the fridge for her two boys.
When Gyemfie left her son’s Ahuntsic apartment on the evening of March 9, she asked him to buy a weekly transit pass for his younger brother so he could take the bus to school.
Gyemfie called Agbezorlie at 9:23 p.m. that evening and gently chided him about procrastinating after he told her that he hadn’t yet purchased the bus pass. She reminded him that the pharmacy closed at 10 p.m. on Sundays.
“I am going right now,” Agbezorlie, 28, told his mother.
Agbezorlie then contacted Sandra Mensah, 26, a family friend who attends bible study classes that the pastor hosts on Friday and Saturday nights. Mensah told her family that she was going out with Pastor Kobie and would be back soon.
Agbezorlie picked Mensah up in a grey Infiniti and they drove the two kilometres to the Jean Coutu pharmacy on Gouin Blvd. W.
The weekly bus pass was purchased at 9:47 p.m. and a security camera filmed them leaving the pharmacy a few minutes later. That was the last time anyone one has seen or spoken to them.
They’re not answering their cellphones, and Montreal police say they are baffled by the mysterious disappearance. They’re close to their families and have never had problems with the law.
“They are both very humble,” an extremely worried Gyemfie told The Gazette this week. “Kobie has no problems and doesn’t do drugs, smoke or drink.”
She said her son is a confident young man who has devoted his life to spreading the word of Jesus and has been a mentor to many young men in his community.
The families are especially alarmed because Agbezorlie and Mensah left their wallets at home and had very little money with them.
Five days after they went missing, the car Agbezorlie had been driving was found near Raimbault Park, about 700 metres from the pharmacy. His tablet and computer were inside the car, but there was no sign of foul play nor a message to their families. “Kobie would never leave unannounced without telling his family,” his mother insisted.
Gyemfie called the pastor’s cellphone several times on the morning of March 10 to make sure her younger son hadn’t slept through his alarm.
She was a bit concerned that Agbezorlie didn’t answer her calls, but brushed it aside, telling herself that he was likely praying and would call back later.
For the past seven years, Agbezorlie has worked as a freelance pastor, spreading the word of Jesus in church- es across the north end. His Facebook page is filled with passages professing his love for “his saviour.”
But the pastor never returned his mother’s calls that day. Just before 6 p.m., his mother received a phone call from Mensah’s sister asking whether she had spoken to Pastor Kobie that day. The woman said Mensah failed to return home Sunday evening after going to the pharmacy and was not answering her phone. As she spoke to Mensah’s sister, Gyemfie was consumed by a feeling of dread.
She asked Mensah’s sister to go to her son’s apartment to see if he was home. When she arrived, only the younger brother was home. He thought his older brother had arrived home late from the pharmacy and left early the next morning.
Gyemfie then raced over to her son’s apartment and began calling his fellow pastors and friends to see if they knew where he was — but no one had heard from him.
Knowing her son’s disappearance was out of character, Gyemfie went to the police station that night with Mensah’s mother to report their children missing. The officers asked whether her son took medication, had problems with drugs and alcohol or was a gangster. When Gyemfie answered no to all of the questions, the police wondered whether the pair had fallen in love and had run away together. The pair are both from close-knit Ghanian families but they’re just friends, both families say.
The police searched the pastor’s apartment that night, but came up empty-handed.
Two weeks later, Montreal police said they have no leads in the case. “The investigation is active and ongoing, but we have no idea why they disappeared,” said Const. François Collard, a media relations officer. Collard said there are no plans to search Rivières des Prairies even though the river is a short distance from where the car was found.
Since the pair went missing, their families have seen an outpouring of sympathy and support from the West African community in Montreal. Friends and strangers have turned up to offer support and put up posters in Cartierville and Ahuntsic to raise awareness about the sudden disappearance.
Agbezorlie’s sister, Christina Enchill, said her brother is a charismatic young man who finds it easy to strike up a conversation with strangers. “He isn’t shy to share his religious beliefs,” she said.
Enchill and her mother wonder whether someone may have abducted the pastor and his friend. Gyemfie said her community has a reward for anyone who can give police information about why her son and his friend are missing.
“We are pleading to everyone, in the name of God, to release them,” she said. “We want them to come home to their families. We need them to come home.”
Anyone with information about the disappearance can call Montreal police at 3931133.