A 15-year-old boy is missing and his family is hoping for his safe return. Ashton Stevens was last seen playing basketball at the Rockville Boot Camp yesterday around 4:30pm. Stevens’ mother, Ashanti Anderson, believes that her son may have run away from the camp because of the physical abuse he allegedly endured.

Ashanti Anderson, Mother: “We had a situation with one of the cadet officers with a physical abuse situation and we reported that formally and from there my son was reporting to my mom that the abuse was getting more and he mentioned to a family member that he would have run away because nobody was listening to the fact that he was being abused. I have not heard because I didn’t hear that from this month. He did come to me and my husband and told us about the one abuse that the officer had punched him the stomach and he ended up puking and that was when we made the formal report against this officer and since Ahston has been missing another parent from the same her son is in the same facility she’s actually a police officer she called me because her son had a problem with the same cadet officer with physical abuse and her son when they came for the Valentine’s weekend was asking and begging her to not send him back, he didn’t want to go back due to the abuse so I’m not sure if my son ran away because of the abuse or if something negligent happened, I’m not sure. I already made a police report, the facility had not made a police report, they told me that they thought that they had to wait the twenty four hours but I went into the Hattieville police station and made my report. After I went with the meeting I left there around sometime around three after me and some of my family we went to some of the residents and showed them pictures nobody saw him. On arriving at Belize City someone called me and told me that there is a report that my son had been seen on Partridge Street this morning in the PT uniform, the PT uniform is the uniform they use for recreational and that he held a black plastic bag with clothing in it and this person that saw him was a cadet officer from the facility. This is what I understand that the person who claimed to see my son this morning was walking in front of Partridge Street and did not stop him or anything so I’m not sure if that is either relevant or true but that is what I am hearing but at this time moment my son is nowhere to be found.”

If anyone has information on his location, they are asked to contact their nearest police station or contact Anderson at 634-6098.