Mother fears trafficking of missing Matthew

ON THE 28th year anniversary of the disappearance of 9-year-old Matthew Ohlsson, who vanished from outside of his home in Mitchell’s Plain, his mother has shed light on her fears that he might have been trafficked - and how during the early stages of the case, a news report that he had run away, nearly destroyed her and her family.

- GENEVIEVE SERRA

To learn to live without knowing where her son was, Ohlsson even removed photographs of Matthew and just left one in sight, where he could be seen in the palm of God's hands.

Matthew was attending Westville Primary School and disappeared on the morning of March 24, 1997, while collecting the refuse bin outside of his Westridge home.

Four years ago, a woman from Rocklands, Mitchell’s Plain, who was a child at the time of the disappearance, came forward stating she had seen a boy fitting Matthew's description crying at the window of a neighbour's residence and handed the information over to the police.

Ohlsson said the world has changed since Matthew vanished, as people became more vocal and aware about human trafficking.

“People will say if he wanted to come back, he would have come back already, people have no idea what the word human trafficking means,’ she said during an interview with the Cape Argus this week.