A CONVICTED paedophile has become a key suspect in the disappearance of seven-year-old Yeremi Vargas, who was last seen playing outside his home in the village of Vecindario, near Santa Lucía de Tirajana (Gran Canaria) in March 2007.
Yeremi’s body has never been found, meaning he is still officially a ‘missing person’ rather than a murder victim.
The suspect, 56, is in custody in Algeciras (Cádiz province) pending trial for the possible sexual abuse of a minor in 2012 in Yeremi’s home town.
His is apparently ‘known’ to have mentioned Yeremi on various occasions to people in his immediate circle, and has been under investigation for some time.
In the most recent drive to solve the mystery of the child’s disappearance, police called for the public’s help in identifying a white Rénault Oasis with ‘very characteristic’ stickers on it, driven by a ‘middle-aged man’ in a baseball cap, who is believed to have been seen in the area at around the time the youngster vanished.
Details given by the public point to the driver having been the inmate in Algeciras.
He declined to answer when police quizzed him, but is said to have been formally charged with false imprisonment and murder – potentially destroying any hopes the child’s family still have of finding Yeremi alive.
But authorities in the Canary Islands warn that ‘caution should be exercised’ until the full facts are known, since many previous inquiries and interviews into Yeremi’s going missing have come to nothing.
Guardia Civil officers have been working through a long list of potential suspects in the last nine years, even interrogating paedophiles in British prisons.
