Police in the United States are appealing for the public’s help in tracing twin siblings who were last seen thirteen years ago, when they were just three or four years-old.
The children’s disappearance came to light when police in Pittsburgh were asked to serve an emergency protective custody order for four of Patricia Fowler’s children, stemming from concerns they weren’t being cared for properly.
When officers did some further research into Ms. Fowler (47), it came to light that there should have been six children in the home.
She was also the mother of twins, a boy and girl named Ivon and Inisha.
Ms. Fowler could not explain where the children were and has since been charged with concealing information, endangering the welfare of children and obstructing a child welfare investigation.
The last time anyone can recall seeing Patricia Fowler’s twins is 10 years ago. No one can say where they are. https://t.co/asllGMIXGX
— Megan (@meganguzaTrib) August 16, 2016
According to Penn Hills police Chief Howard Burton, the mother of six allegedly said she sold the children for $2,000 each to a woman called Barbara, introduced to her by a man called Mike.
She later retracted that claim after being informed of the penalties for selling a child.
In another tale, she said the children were in the care of a woman in South Carolina. The twins’ father also said he believed this to be true. When the woman was contacted by investigators, a criminal complaint confirms she said “she never saw the missing children, doesn’t know their names, and had no idea that Fowler had twin children,”
Just yesterday, Ms Fowler’s other son was arrested for impersonating one of the missing children in a phone call to the police department, claiming they were safe.
A report in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette suggests the last known contact anybody had with the children was by telephone ten years ago. Penn Hills Police Chief Burton also confirmed that the twins were once in the care of social services.
According to TV station WPXI, two-year-old Ivon was scalded in the bathtub in 2000, suffering second- and third-degree burns on 46 percent of his body.
“They do exist, because at one time, when they were 3 or 4 years old I believe, CYF did take those two children from Fowler,” said Chief Burton.
“There are so many stories we can’t really tell what’s correct and what’s not correct,” he added.
“Everyone that we’ve talked to vaguely remembers there being boy and girl twins, and that’s it. They’ve vanished.”
Police are in contact with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the FBI is now involved in the case, which is ongoing under the names John and Jane Doe.
So far there is no record of them being enrolled in school and no sightings. The FBI are working on creating facial composites of what they may look like now, aged 17.
Main image: Penn Hills Police
