Chronicle: Looking for Susana we find a ‘village’ of Latinos

• Looking for Susana Morelos we find a ‘village’ full of Latinos.
• The girl has been missing for more than two months.
• Her mother is in anguish and the local authorities are not helping her.

Every night Maria Bran goes to bed sad, crying and imploring with all her heart to the Lord God Almighty that the next day she may finally find her little daughter. At dawn, she hopes to hear from her, but as it gets dark, her hopes fade again.

Yes, like any other mother, she doesn’t lose faith that her 16-year-old Susana Morales will eventually return and she’s willing to follow any lead, no matter how ridiculous or even dangerous it may seem. Since last July 26, when Susana disappeared, I have been in constant communication with Mrs. María and with her eldest daughter.

So far, all her efforts have been in vain

Both of them always tell me about walks they take carrying banners or about the places where they are going to put up flyers with the face of the lost girl in the hope that someone who sees them, recognizes her and helps them locate her. They often receive calls or text messages, even anonymous, giving them her possible location.

They’ll get calls from people saying they saw Susana in certain neighborhoods, malls or stores and without a second’s hesitation, they immediately go out to roam those areas to find out if it is true, hoping they can finally find the girl they miss so much. Unfortunately, all those clues have been false leads. Filed As: Chronicle looking for Susana

«Some homeless people have your daughter in the middle of the forest»

It was precisely following one of those tips that last week I had to go through an ugly and risky experience with Doña María and her eldest daughter. We met in a Norcross shopping center parking lot to talk about the latest tips they had received.

They were informed that the previous day someone had seen Susana in a wooded area in the company of several homeless men and drug addicts — one of them nicknamed ‘Caca’, who was armed. The source who requested anonymity also told us that at night they had heard her scream, as if they were torturing her. Filed As: Chronicle looking for Susana

They were encouraged to investigate on their own

“Sometimes I have felt that. That my little daughter is being hurt and that she screams. I think this is true and I’m going to go look for her where they say this happened,” Mrs. María told me. I immediately pointed out that this was dangerous and that she should call the local police, but she told me that they no longer listened to her.

Seeing her determined to get into an unknown area where there could be dangerous people, I decided to accompany her. I told them I would go in with them, but as a preventive measure I brought my gun. For those of you who don’t know, it is legal in the state of Georgia to carry a gun openly or concealed, even without a permit to carry. Filed As: Chronicle looking for Susana

A tremendous surprise

We arrived at the place indicated by our source and saw a small path towards the interior of the forest. We decided to follow it and a few meters further on, we began to see some shacks, tents and even houses made of cardboard and plywood. There were lines with garments hanging, drying, as is usually done in Latin America.

I stood up and told them: «People live here and you can see that a lot of them, you decide if we go back and call 911 or if we continue.» Deep down I wanted them to choose the first option, because I confess that I felt a certain level of fear. “We continue. It is now or never,” said the mother more determined than ever. I had no choice but to move forward. Filed As: Chronicle looking for Susana

They literally gave us a tour of their makeshift «village»

When we got to where the first hut was, there was a group of four men sitting on a bed. When they saw us, they got up upset asking what we were doing there. I told them not to worry, that we were just looking for a young girl who was lost. “That’s so disrespectful of you,” one of them reproached us.

I said to myself, “As if this were his property. They have come to live here by force and get mad as if they were in their territory,” but obviously I did not dare to tell them that so as not to heat things up any further. The good thing is that they calmed down and offered to show us the place. Filed As: Chronicle looking for Susana

Sadly we did not find Susana

After about 15 minutes we had inspected each of these makeshift homes and found absolutely nothing to indicate that Susana was or had been there. What we did see was two armed guys. A woman in a house had her gun on her bed and there was also another angry guy with a gun in his hand, although he never pointed it at us.

Thank God at no time was I forced to take mine out because, although deep down I felt that we weren’t totally safe. I did not see an imminent danger to use it either, although I was attentive to every move and willing to take it out in no time in case it was warranted. In the end we left there empty-handed and with many mixed feelings. Filed As: Chronicle looking for Susana

What do these people live on?

Out of the more than twenty homeless people we ran into that day, 80 percent were Hispanic. There were about four women there and the rest were men. Several of them exuded a strong smell of marijuana. It made me wonder what they do on a daily basis.

And also how is it that they have become accustomed to living that way, without water, electricity and without the minimum health measures, since everyone relieves themselves wherever they please. It is terrible that we come to this beautiful country to live worse than in ours. But well, sometimes one does not know the circumstances behind people’s ways of living. Thanks for reading my story today. MundoNow Until next time. Filed As: Chronicle looking for Susana