Cape Town - It has been nearly 22 years since 13-year-old Novellen Solomons vanished after leaving his home in Woodlands, Mitchells Plain, and the family has not heard from police in two decades.
Novellen has a 20-year-old brother, nephews and nieces he has never met.
This week, the Weekend Argus met the family at their home in Woodlands, discussing the cold reality of police leaving them without answers and never visiting their home.
The family still has a large photograph of Novellen, while Grade 3 at Springdale Primary School.
“I just gave up because the police did not come here for years and it was only my family and neighbours who cared and helped to search for him,” said Novellen’s mother Daisy Rayner, 61.
Neighbours and family had searched as far as Bellville to Grassy Park when rumours spread that the child had been seen with a man at a clothing store.
Novellen is one of five children in the family and was known for being the prankster and a jovial person.
His mother sat holding his photograph, and recalled the day he vanished in 1999.
“It was December 24, 1999, it was Christmas Eve,” she said.
“He walked out of the door and said: ’Mammie, I will be back now.’ He was just gone. I sent my son and foster child to look for him and it was said via a friend that he went to Bishop Lavis and when we got to that area, they said he was there and had just left. We do not know where and how.
“My neighbour, Maureen van Niekerk was with me from the start during the search with police.”
Van Niekerk, 71, recalls sitting at the back of a police vehicle and today still questions why police never treated a shop owner in Bellville as a potential suspect after he had admitted he saw Novellen.
“We were everywhere looking for him, even in Grassy Park and sat at the back of police vans,” she said.
“We met an inspector called Lievies, he at a time got so tired of us, because we were constantly at the police station.
“We together with the police were led to a clothing store in Bellville. The man there said he had seen Novellen.
“When we asked the police officer who was with us, why can’t they arrest or question him, they said he could in turn sue the police. We will never forget that shop to this day.”
Rayner said as police’s attention and interest waned, they became demoralised.
“We were always at the police station but when the police started not coming back to us, we just gave up,” she said.
She said she was heartbroken because her son had never met her youngest son, who is now 20.
“He has a brother named Junior Rayner who he has never met, I had him after Novellen disappeared.”
Novellen’s sisters Marina Dieners, 43, and Melissa Solomons, 31, had attempted to keep his story alive by sharing it with television news which showcased missing children.
“I have two children now and he does not know that he is an uncle now,” said Dieners.
Rayner said police had not communicated on who the new detective was or what type of case was being led, whether a kidnapping or a general missing persons case.
Weekend Argus placed several queries with provincial, Mitchell's Plain and Lentegeur Police Stations on Solomons case and was told different police officers were attending to it while others said they were on annual leave.
We waited for a response from police since Monday.
Weekend Argus