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Missing Child Alert Issued For 3 Year Old Luke Finch from Cocoa, FL … Possible Parental Abduction by Paul Martikainen (Update: Boy Found Safe)

Florida authorities have issued a “Missing Child Alert” for 3 year old Luke Finch. Police are saying that they believe this to be a parental abduction. Luke Finch went missing on November 28, 2009.  The child may be in the company of 35 year old Paul Martikainen. Martikainen is the boys father who was in the middle of a court appointed visit with his son when Paul Martikainen abducted Luke Finch.

Paul Martikainen (left), Luke Finch (rt)

Officials say Luke Finch, was last seen in the area of Taylor Park at Harrison & Delannoy Street in Cocoa Florida, wearing a blue sweatshirt, blue pants and black and red fire engine sneakers.

MISSING CHILD ALERT

• Luke Finch, He stands about 2 feet 9 inches tall, weighs 33 pounds and has blond hair and blue eyes.
• The boy was last seen in the area of Taylor Park at Harrison and Delannoy streets in Cocoa, wearing a blue sweatshirt, blue pants and black and red fire engine sneakers.
• The child may be in the company of Paul Martikainen, 35, and the pair may be traveling in a green Ford Explorer with a dented rear bumper and tag number 142KEA, police said.
• Martikainen is described as a white male, standing 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighing 176 pounds, with blond hair and green eyes.
• Martikainen has a tattoo of a cross with Jesus and tribal tattoos on his back and a tribal tattoo on one of his thighs

Martikainen was under supervision because of a prior history of child abuse allegations against his son.

Anyone with information regarding the location of the boy is asked to contact the Cocoa Police Department at 321-639-7620.

Update I: Police still search for man wanted for abducting 3-year-old son from Cocoa

Investigators said this afternoon they are considering expanding the search statewide with the help of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, after receiving several tips and reports of sightings of Luke outside Brevard County. A Florida missing-child alert has been issued for the boy, Cocoa police said.

The father-son visit was being monitored by a court-appointed supervisor because of previous allegations of child abuse against the boy, police said. Martikainen managed to elude the supervisor, and he and the boy have not been seen since 1 p.m., police said.

UPDATE II: Arrest Warrant Issued for Paul Martikainen

A “Missing Child Alert” has been issued for Luke Finch as well as an arrest warrant for the tot-dad, Paul Martikainen. It is believed that the two are on a sail boat sailing in the Gulf of Mexico. The Coast Guard has deployed fixed wing air craft and have asked boaters to be on the look out for any sightings of a battleship gray sailboat.

UPDATE III: Missing Dad, Son May Have Left St. Pete in Sailboat

Late Saturday, a witness called authorities and said they had seen Martikainen’s Ford Explorer at the Salt Creek Marina, said Cocoa Police Department spokeswoman Barbara Matthews.

Police found the Explorer at the St. Petersburg marina and interviewed witnesses who reported seeing Martikainen and the boy get into a 32-foot gray Bristol sailboat.

“We found out (Martikainen) had a boat there and people saw Paul and Luke in a dinghy going out to a boat,” Matthews said.

UPDATE IV: Luke Finch Found Safe, Reunited with Mother

The three-day search for a 3-year-old Cocoa boy abducted by his father during a supervised visit at Riverfront Park ended today with his safe recovery from a sailboat in the Gulf of Mexico.

Three-year-old Luke Finch, whom authorities said was abducted by his father and taken to sea, was reunited with his mother Christa Finch in Fort Myers Beach, the U.S. Coast Guard announced this afternoon.

Finch was rescued this morning about 140 miles southwest of Fort Myers Beach on 32-foot sailboat operated by his father Paul Martikainen.

Petty Officer 1st Class Mariana O’Leary said the sailboat sank as it was being towed to the Coast Guard Station on Fort Myers Beach.

No one was hurt.

Missing boy, father rescued today by Coast Guard

November 29th, 2009 at 03:23pm Posted by Administrator | abduction, Found Alive, kidnapped, Missing, Missing Children, Pictures | 6 comments

31 Year Old Italian Chef Angelo Faliva Missing Aboard “Coral Princess” Sailing from Aruba to Colombia between Nov. 24 & 25

31 year old Italian Chef Angelo Faliva is missing aboard the Princess Cruises “Coral Princess” sailing from Aruba to Cartagena, Colombia. Faliva was last seen on a deck of the Coral Princess at about 8:30 AM Thursday. The FBI is investigating the disappearance. Angelo Faliva is believed to have gone overbaord.

Colombian maritime authorities searched Sunday for an Italian chef believed to have gone overboard from a U.S. cruise ship off Colombia’s Caribbean coast, officials and the man’s family said.

There were different accounts about when and where Angelo Faliva, 31, was last seen as the Princess Cruises “Coral Princess” sailed from Aruba to Cartagena, Colombia, between Nov. 24 and 25.

Princess Cruises spokeswoman Julie Benson said Faliva was last seen on a deck at about 8:30 a.m. Thursday, when he spoke with another crew member as the ship neared Cartagena.

His family, however, said they had been told that he had unexpectedly walked out of the ship’s galley at about 8:15 p.m. the night before, while he was working the dinner shift, and never returned and hadn’t been seen since.

The family suspects that there was an accident or homicide. Princess Cruises spokeswoman Julie Benson said that Faliva’s cabin had been sealed, the ship has been searched and its CCTV footage reviewed. However, no cameras captured video of a crew member going overboard.

The Faliva family said it was alerted Thursday that he had been reported missing and that a life preserver was also missing, with its nighttime illumination flares torn off and left aboard the ship.

“He surely didn’t jump off. It wasn’t suicide,” his sister Chiara Faliva told The Associated Press from the family’s home in Cremona. “We think there was an accident or a homicide.”

Italian chef missing at sea on Caribbean cruise

The commander of the Colombian Coast Guard station in Cartagena, Lt. Javier Sanchez, said officials there received a report from the “Coral Princess” at 10 a.m. Thursday that one of the cooks had last been seen the night of Nov. 25 between 7-8 p.m. when the ship was navigating Colombian waters near La Guajira.

But like the Princess spokeswoman, he too said the Coast Guard received word from the ship later Thursday that a person had seen the chef at about 6 a.m. Thursday morning.

The ship docked in Cartagena at 10 a.m. Thursday. By 3 p.m., the Coast Guard began searching for the chef, using a helicopter and two boats.

The search continues, using boats. “The case is not closed,” Sanchez said.

An Italian Foreign Ministry official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said Italian embassy officials in Bogota were working with Colombian maritime authorities conducting the search and that the FBI was expected to investigate as well since the ship is part of the U.S.-based Carnival Corp. cruise empire.

The family is hoping Venezuelan maritime authorities also will take part in the search since the ship passed through Venezuelan waters during the time Faliva is believed to have gone overboard.

November 29th, 2009 at 03:07pm Posted by Administrator | Cruise ship, Missing, Missing Adult | one comment