  | ||
 | ||
| News | Business | Feature | Opinion | Sports | Tourist Info |
Classifieds |
|
Boy's family still hunting for a miracle
Ivana Nejedla carries photographs of her son Honza in a little brown diary. Smudged with fingerprints and curling at the edges, they are the only way she can look at him. Two years later, parents of 9-year-old await clues to son's disappearance By Katka Fronk Two years ago this month, 9-year-old Jan Nejedly -- known to family and friends as Honza -- went out to play. He never came back. "I don't want to think about what has happened to him," the 29-year-old Nejedla says. "At some point you have to move on. We would go crazy if we didn't." But moving on isn't easy. On Jan. 17, 1998, Honza left his house in Prague 4-Podoli, to visit a friend nearby. The friend wasn't home. No one knows whether Honza even made it to his house. As the hours passed, Ivana and her husband Marcel, also 29, alerted the police, who began searching the area by nightfall. The helicopter and sniffer dogs combed cliffs behind the missing boy's home. They also dredged portions of the Vltava River, which runs just a few hundred meters from Honza's home. But they came up empty. Bright yellow "missing" posters hung by family members throughout Prague and begging for information produced nothing. Nor did a 1 million Kc ($28,570) reward offered to anyone who could bring their son home. Horror scenarios The Nejedly family doctor was the last person known to have seen Honza. The man was walking his dog by the river on the afternoon of his disappearance. "We still don't know what's happened to him," a dejected Marcel says. The Nejedly family has concocted various scenarios to explain the unexplainable, including the possibility that Honza ran away or that someone abducted him. What they cling to most is the idea that he might be alive -- although the thought unleashes morose fantasies. "I think that he is being abused somewhere outside of the Czech Republic and that he is in some kind of " Marcel says, stopping mid-sentence. "I don't know. I just don't know." Child disappearances are rare in the Czech Republic. Each year, some 1,000 children under age 16 vanish, according to Czech Police spokeswoman Ivana Zelenakova. Most turn up safely. "The young ones are usually found within 24 hours," she says. Apart from Honza, the police have only one other case of a missing child on their books. Compared to Germany, where 1,827 children under 18 are registered as missing, the Czech Republic is still relatively safe for children. Ivana won't speculate on Honza's fate. Their other child, 6-year-old Andrea, deserves her parents' attention, she says. Mother and father agree that Honza's disappearance has made them far more protective of Andrea. A year ago, the family moved to a village just outside of Prague. "Now our house is surrounded by a wall, and we are relatively safe," Marcel says. "If we still lived in Prague, I would not let Andrea leave the house." Telling their young daughter about her brother is not easy. "She doesn't understand," Marcel says. "She thinks that he just got lost." Avoid strangers Ivana instructs her daughter not to talk to strangers, no matter how pleasant they seem. "I try to tell her that a bad man doesn't have to look like a bad man. But then she says, 'That man seemed nice,' " the downcast Ivana explains. "But we told Honza the same thing." Andrea is very trusting, her mother says, as was Honza. "She is a lot like him, very open and talkative. She is not the kind of child to hide behind her mother. Unfortunately." Despite drawing a blank, police haven't closed the book on the case. "We are still working on the case," says police investigator Tatjana Prokopova. Theoretically, a missing child case is legally open until he or she is found. However, police can do little without fresh leads, Prokopova says, adding, "But hope is the last thing to die." Despite the two years, the Nejedlys follow up every credible tip they receive. Although less frequent, calls still come in from people claiming to know where Honza might be. "If somebody calls, we have to meet them to hear them out," Ivana says. "It might be the call that we've been waiting for." If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Honza Nejedly, call the police at 158 or Marcel Nejedly at 0602/314 506. |
Back to Top
Home