Deante James, 17, went missing on the evening of March 31 from Enfield, North London. More than one month on mum Vandana says every day is a living hell not knowing if he’s safe
Heartbroken Vandana Bhogowoth has spent every day of the last six weeks frantically searching for her missing son she lovingly refers to as “my boo”.
Not long before he vanished, Deante Darell James would have been described as your average Gen Z 17-year-old. He loved going to the gym, working out and turning his hand at any sport going.
But in the weeks leading up to his disappearance, something was desperately wrong. And on the evening of March 31, he left the family home in Enfield, North London – without his phone or wallet – and never came back.
Yet the tragedy does not end there: Just three days later Deante was arrested by police at London Earl’s Court tube station accused of providing false details when stopped for not paying his fare.
But instead of police bringing him home and ending Vandana’s agony, they let him go – because they didn’t realise he was a missing person.
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It is a problem that happens all too often as information falls through the cracks between different agencies.
“Why didn’t it flag up to them that he was a missing person?” Vandana, 36, told The Mirror. “He’s underage, he’s vulnerable and at risk. Police had hold of him and let him go – we could have had him home by now.”
Deante’s missing person’s case was being handled by The Met Police, but it was British Transport Police who stopped him at Earl’s Court. The Met investigation didn’t flag up on the system when British Transport Police officers searched his real name on their database due to an inputting blunder.
The Met admitted his name had been entered into the system the wrong way round.
The near miss only adds to the family’s pain. But it’s not just Deante: many missing people are slipping through the cracks because there’s no clear government plan to protect or support them. But now thanks to the Mirror’s Missed campaign, Vandana was able to discuss these concerns with Jess Phillips MP, the parliamentary under-secretary for The Home Office earlier this week.
She’s determined other families should not be put through the same agony as she was – and has been praised by charity Missing People.
Susannah Drury, Director of Policy and Development at the charity, says: “We’re incredibly grateful to Deante’s mum, who despite the anguish she’s facing, is standing with our charity to call for missing to be a high priority for the police and government. Her commitment to meeting with Jess Phillips MP is a powerful act of courage and advocacy.
“Families in crisis deserve better, and missing must be recognised as a moment that demands an immediate, compassionate response.”
It was only after Vandana got in touch with her own MP that Deante’s case was changed from medium to high risk.
“Why wasn’t he classed as high risk to begin with?,” she adds “When a loved one goes missing it’s like being in limbo, it’s unbearable. I want him to know that we all love and miss him so much.”
Deante’s life changed a few weeks before he vanished. Vandana said he never touched drugs normally, but had shared a joint with friends. He did not realise it was laced with Spice – a man-made cannabis linked to serious health issues ranging from difficulty breathing to psychotic episodes.
When he came home Vandana knew something wasn’t quite right.
“His eyes were glazed and he was just staring into space,” she recalls. “He didn’t know where he was and had extreme paranoia. For days after there was a look of doom in his eyes and he couldn’t stop crying.”
Over the next few weeks Deante’s mental health continued to deteriorate. He was hearing voices and hallucinating. Overnight he’d gone from a hard-working, charming boy full of ambition to someone consumed by negative thoughts.
Vandana, a teacher at the local college says: “It was so upsetting to see him like that. He’s not a regular smoker. He’s really into the gym and wants to be a personal trainer or PE teacher. But he changed overnight.
“We were so worried about his state of mind that I refused to leave him on his own and kept taking him back to see the medical professionals. It was a doctor who told us he had all the signs of drug-induced psychosis from accidentally taking Spice. They said his neurons had disconnected and he’d broken a part of his brain because the Spice was too powerful.”
Leaving the hospital on March 31, Vandana felt more hopeful than she had done in a long time. Doctors said that while he had damaged a part of his brain, with help and medication there was no reason why he wouldn’t make a full recovery.
But that evening back at home in Enfield, Deante slipped back into psychosis, ripping up pictures and smashing his mum’s phone before bolting out the back door.
“We haven’t seen him since,” Vandana says. “We’re so worried about him. He would never do something like this before the psychosis – he loved his home comforts too much and what teenager leaves home without their phone or any money?
“I spend all day every day looking for him, sending emails and following up on leads. I answer my phone within the first few rings in case it’s him. I 100% believe he’s still alive but just confused because of the psychosis.”
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said while officers believe Deante is not carrying a mobile phone, enquiries have been carried out to obtain historic mobile phone data, in order to identify any associates that could know his whereabouts.
Officers have also conducted local and financial enquiries, spoken to Deante’s family and friends, and local partners – including charities, and health and education services – in order to better understand his possible movements. They’ve also trawled CCTV camera footage.
But Mum Vandana fears that police haven’t taken her son’s disappearance seriously enough because he is from a Caribbean and Mauritian background. Every year 170,000 people go missing in the UK – but black people are disproportionately represented, making up 14% of missing persons despite representing only 3% of the population.
“The police only came and took his phone and laptop three weeks after he went missing,” she says. “They’ve not taken it seriously. I’m desperately following every lead and doing their job for them.”
A spokesperson for The Met last night strongly refuted allegations that they are not taking the case seriously enough because of his race. They also stressed they had apologised for his name being entered into the system the wrong way round. A spokesperson added: “Officers are working around the clock to find Deante and have viewed hours of CCTV footage and will review more as we follow every possible line of enquiry. We appreciate Deante’s family’s concerns around this case and officers have been keeping them updated throughout the time he’s been missing.”
Deante’s older sister Jaidaima, 19, has meanwhile created a TikTok video of her and her brother which has been viewed more than 73,000 times.
But despite people contacting the family with potential sightings, the only definite sighting is when police arrested him at Earl’s Court.
“I’ve been to Earl’s Court and spoken to every person I can think of,” his mum says. “We give the police updates every single day.”
Meanwhile, Deante’s mum has a stark warning for other teenagers who may be considering experimenting with drugs.
“Teenagers need to be so careful,” she says. “I’ve spoken to a lot of other young people and they’ve also unknowingly bought spliffs or vapes laced with Spice.
“It’s so damaging – it only took my son one time to damage his brain. It’s changed his life and he’s now gone missing because of it.
“It’s hard to watch someone change so much in the click of a finger, I wish I could swap places with him. Psychosis robs you of the real person. It’s almost like they are possessed – like they’re still there but it’s not them.
“If I could say anything to Deante now it would be ‘Everyone loves you and misses you. You’re my whole world. Please come home boo’.”
• The Mirror is using its platform to launch Missed – a campaign to shine a light on underrepresented public-facing missing persons in the UK via a live interactive map, in collaboration with Missing People Charity. Because every missing person, no matter their background or circumstances, is someone’s loved one. And they are always Missed.