BUNCLODY BOY FOUND SAFE AND WELL AFTER GARDA ALERT
A child missing from Bunclody has been found ‘safe and well’ and a man has been arrested after a Child Rescue Ireland (CRI) alert was issued overnight on Sunday. Three year-old Jake Jordan went missing from his home in Bunclody overnight. Gardaí said that the boy was taken by his father - 30 year-old Patrick Somers - following an incident at the child’s home at Saint Mary’s Villas. The pair were last seen leaving the location at approximately 1.15 a.m. yesterday (Monday) morning.
Gardaí wasted no time in issuing the alert seeking the public’s assistance in tracking down the pair and the wine coloured Ford Focus they were travelling in. Descriptions were also released, which stated the child was still wearing his Batman pyjamas when taken from the house.
The garda statement said that they believed there was a ‘reasonable belief that there is an immediate and serious risk to the health and welfare of the child’ and people were urged not to approach Somers or the car if they came across it. The alert automatically popped up in the Facebook news-feeds of people right across the area yesterday morning in what is just the seventh time that this protocol has been used by gardaí. Thankfully, however, it was a happy ending and gardaí confirmed that Jake was found safe and well and that ‘one man has been arrested in connection with the investigation’.
A garda spokesman confirmed that the man arrested was the boy’s father and that they were discovered in the Bunclody area. The boy was taken for a quick check-up to Wexford General Hospital before being brought back, safe and sound to his worried family.
Gardaí wished to thank the public for their assistance in the matter and for sharing across social media.