The first witness is a young woman and an acquaintance of Kacperek’s mother. She told us that both parents were good caregivers, and that the mother was the best she knew. On the day of the disappearance, on Monday afternoon, the woman we spoke with was staying with her children and family at the allotment adjoining Kacperek’s parents’ allotment.
“What is there to say? The child disappeared, that’s all. We were at the allotment the whole time, just like the child’s father and Kacperek,” the woman recounts. “The father suddenly started running after the child, and he disappeared behind that hedge,” the woman says, pointing to the bushes growing on the steep riverbank. “As far as I’m concerned, the father did not neglect his duties. He was doing his work, but he kept checking on the child all the time. I know Kacperek’s mother well, and I don’t know a better mother in the world. They have three other children, and they are all loved. Kacperek was the youngest. We all ran to the river to look for the boy—everyone who was at the allotment. My husband and his cousin gathered people. It was a shock to us. It’s unimaginable. A child disappears. We went into the river with sticks to examine the bottom. Like a stone into water—there was no child. The child did not ride away anywhere. He was riding his balance bike along a route perhaps 10 metres long beside the fence; we were all here, after all. And suddenly they started looking for him. His mother drove onto the path at speed, so abruptly that I jumped up and asked why she was driving so carelessly, because there were children here. And she replied: ‘My child has disappeared…’ I stayed with her the whole time, until the ambulance arrived. She was in such shock that we could barely keep her standing,” recounts the missing boy’s mother’s acquaintance.
The woman’s account is confirmed by Ms Stanisława, who also saw the boy before he disappeared and helped search for Kacperek.
“The child disappeared in some strange way. It seems to me that if he had drowned, the body would be somewhere, or there would at least be a trace of the bicycle. After all, the child weighed something, and even if he had slid into the water, some imprint in the earth or grass would have remained. But there was nothing. Further on there are only bushes, and the path is so narrow that an adult cannot get through there, nor can a child,” says Stanisława Pawłowska.
A police spokesperson says that the search is still ongoing.
“We have expanded the search area somewhat to include the railway grounds; additional personnel and equipment have arrived. The Territorial Defence Forces are here, and we are waiting for the dog teams from Kraków. So far, no traces or evidence connected with the disappearance have been found—anything that would be related to the disappearance. The boy’s father was detained in connection with another offence for which he was wanted. It is being verified and checked whether the man was under the influence of alcohol when he was caring for his son. At the time of his detention, he had 0.7 per mille of alcohol in his exhaled air, but that is not the most important matter now. The priority now is to find the boy, and that is what we are focusing on,” the spokesperson adds.
We asked local residents about the boy’s father. They replied that in certain circles he is known by the nickname “Szajba” and that people are also aware of his problems with the law. They do not know more, but they know the river and are surprised that it would be possible not to find a child in the water.
“I know this section of the Kwisa—from the allotments to my home,” says one of the residents of Nowogrodziec. “I have often travelled upstream along the stretch where the body should theoretically have been carried. It is a shallow, very winding section with a strong current, so the body would have been thrown onto the bank, into the bushes, at the first bend. If the child had fallen in there and drowned, they would have found him very quickly,” the resident adds.
The search continues, and there are more and more questions. Did someone abduct little Kacperek? Everyone is wondering how a child could disappear in an instant.
“We are trying to remember some details or anything at all, but no one drove onto the allotment, there was no other car and there were no strangers here,” says Ms Stanisława. “We had been sitting at the allotment since early morning, so we would have noticed. The people who come to the allotments know one another. The woman who is a teacher and has an allotment a little farther away was here with her husband, as was the woman who comes by bicycle to feed the cats. There was no one else at the allotment,” the witness says.
The missing boy’s name is: KACPER BŁAŻEJOWSKI. The boy was wearing black cargo trousers, a white-and-red striped T-shirt with a Mickey Mouse design, and grey sports shoes. The child may have had a balance bike with him. Police ask anyone who saw the boy to provide information. Information can be given by calling: 75 6496 200 or 75 6496 201.
