EchoVibe

There are many missing children throughout the Quad Cities. Local Four News is highlighting those kids to try and help reunite parents with their kids. In the first part of our “Hold My Child Again” series we highlight a young boy named Teyo DeJesus.

Teyo’s mother Andrea DeJesus is a mother of two, an eight year old girl named Makiya and Teyo. Teyo is her youngest.

“He was a very quiet, calm, cool, and collective little dude. Very very caring and loving little boy. He was just a cuddle bug all the time, but he had his wild side. He’d do anything to make you laugh.”

Teyo was two years old when he went missing in 2016. His mother won a custody battle with his father, Melcon DeJesus. In the agreement each parent would get a week at a time with Teyo. That didn’t happen.

“It was my turn. I was picking my son up and getting ready for the visit and he took Teyo right out of my arms.” Said DeJesus. “I still have his one shoe in my house because I was in the process of putting his shoes on and he locked himself in the room with my child and just basically ran from there.”

DeJesus now lives in Polo, Illinois. The Polo Police and Kewanee Police have been working together to locate Teyo, but say that his father has been difficult to find.

“He keeps moving around. He’s very good at hiding. He basically avoids them at the time and then he’ll leave as soon as they vacate the property. And this actually just happened not even a month ago in Champaign.”

The situation became a nightmare for Teyo’s mother.

“I’ve depressed all my time. We wanna bring him home. I haven’t held him, told him I loved him since he was two years old and he’s going to be six at the end of next month.”

This affected all aspects of her life.

“I’ve lost jobs. I have really really lowered my circle socially and my daughter is getting the worst of it because she is definitely caged. I will not let her out of my sight.”

Makiya says she misses Teyo and always had fun when he was around.

“We would like jump around, be crazy, scream and stuff. We used to always do that when we were little.”

DeJesus makes the most of her time with Makiya, but says it was hard knowing her other child was out there somewhere.

“It’s an every day ongoing worry. I don’t know if he’s okay. I don’t know if he’s healthy.”

Now she has those answers. Teyo was found in Urbana over the weekend. Locating Teyo was difficult, but some girls in Champaign found some flyers that DeJesus had put up. From there the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office took action and removed Teyo from his father’s house.

Malcon DeJesus was arrested on by the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office on a Disorderly Conduct warrant from the Henry County Sheriff’s Department. He has a court date coming up.

Andrea DeJesus says that it still feels like a dream come true being able to see Teyo again.

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