HEBRON — Less than a two-hour flight from his final destination and his mother's arms, Oumar Nkeng's journey away from his former life as a slave in a rural western African village somehow went wrong in Northern Kentucky.

        Now authorities are appealing to the public to aid in the search for the 16-year-old, last seen Dec. 18 at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

MISSING TEEN

Oumar Nkeng     Oumar is described as 5-foot-8, 120 pounds. He speaks limited English, and was last seen wearing a red parka and dark jeans. His full name is Oumar (sometimes Omar) Larvell Jamisco Mohammed Kanu Nkeng.

        “We're not totally out of leads at this point, but it's gotten to the point where taking this public is the best option,” airport Police Chief Chuck Melville said at a Friday news conference. “And we don't know enough about the boy to speculate as to his motives or whereabouts. We just want to find him.”

        This much is known: On 6:15 a.m. on Dec. 18, Oumar took a shuttle bus from the Drawbridge Inn in Fort Mitchell to the airport, bound for a Mesaba Airlines plane for Memphis. He was headed there to meet his mother, Jacequeline Ennis after a 10-year separation.

        Ms. Ennis is a U.S.-born citizen; and Oumar also was born in the United States, automatically making him an American citizen.

        Ms. Ennis denied interview requests, but the boy's aunt, Evelyn Perry, said father James Nkeng kidnapped Oumar and his sister from the country 10 years ago and returned to his native Cameroon, about halfway down the western African coast.

        The father is believed to have sent his stepdaughter, Jacquett, back to the United States with missionaries within the past five years, Ms. Perry said. The girl, now believed to be 14, has not been located, she said.

        Then Mr. Nkeng fell ill, Ms. Perry said, and gave custody of the boy to another family in his village before he died three years ago of unknown causes. According to the U.S. State Department, Oumar said that instead of treating him like a son, the family turned him into a slave.

        “He told us that they beat him and didn't pay for him to go to school as they did with the other children,” Ms. Perry said.

        Then late last month, another group of missionaries visited the village, Ms. Perry said, and helped Oumar to the U.S. Embassy in Yaounde.

        There, he proved through a series of chronological pictures that he was indeed Oumar, said Christopher Lamora, spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs.

        “They wouldn't have issued him a passport or a repatriation loan (of $2,500) to come back if he wasn't who he said he was,” said Mr. Lamora. “As for the rest of the story, it fits with the blanks in his history that we have. He also made it very clear he wanted to come back to the United States.”

        The State Department used the money to buy Oumar's plane ticket, provide food for the two weeks he spent waiting for clearance and to allow him pocket money for incidentals.

        It's not known how much cash he had on him when he disappeared.

        Ms. Perry said she and her sister both spoke to Oumar at length once consular officials had located Ms. Ennis, and that even though he spoke in broken English, they could understand that he was looking forward to returning to the United States and seeing his mother again.

        “His main concern was whether she would be there to meet the plane,” Ms. Perry said.

        Mr. Lamora said that Oumar was accompanied from the Cameroon capital of Yaounde to Paris by someone from the U.S. military who was returning home. Once in Paris, he made the flight to Cincinnati with no problems.

        But upon arriving here, he missed three flights to Memphis late Dec. 17, including one that had been canceled by Comair.

        Delta officials then put him at the Drawbridge Inn overnight and booked him on Mesaba Flight 3668. The shuttle-bus driver remembers Oumar getting off at the airport and an airport vendor remembers selling him something soon thereafter, Mr. Melville said, but Mesaba has no record of him boarding the flight.

        Mr. Melville said no foul play is suspected.

        “We really don't know his frame of mind, whether he just got confused or is running away or what,” Mr. Melville said.

        Oumar's backpack, which contained his clothes and personal belongings, was found in the hotel room, said Fort Mitchell Police Sgt. Tom Loos, who added it wasn't likely the boy returned to that area.

        Mr. Lamora also wouldn't speculate on possible reasons for Oumar's disappearance, saying that while the State Department's official role is over, a case worker is still in constant contact with the family and local authorities.

        Ms. Perry wondered why neither State Department nor Delta personnel personally escorted Oumar to his final destination, considering his limited English and lack of exposure to airports.

        But Mr. Lamora said that when older children repatriate, they are not required to have an escort.

        Delta officials in Atlanta did not return phone calls seeking comment.

        “He hasn't been in the U.S. since he was a child and can barely speak English,” Ms. Perry said. “It's silly that they didn't send a chaperone or escort with him. I suspect something happened, whether it be foul play or whatever. We want him back more than anything and he wanted to come back.”

        Oumar's full name is Oumar (sometimes Omar) Larvell Jamisco Mohammed Kanu Nkeng. Kanu is the name of the family that adopted him, and his father added Mohammed to the name after they moved back to Africa. Oumar could use any combinations of the names as his.

        Airport police request that anyone with information about the missing boy call (859) 767-3123.

Kidnapped, freed, and now missing
Man jailed over death of fetus
An $857K silk purse made from sows' ears
Cold has city scrambling to fix broken water lines
New laws take aim at education
School funding hangs over assembly
A few education bills are on docket
Assembly expected to put focus on teachers
Cold hard on Kentucky communities
Cops can't ID body in trash bin
Dayton considers going upscale
Drug court arrives in eastern Ky.
Episcopalians, Lutherans will team up as of Sunday
Fairfield seeking volunteer planners
HOWARD: Neighborhoods
It all began in the middle
Lawmaker wants to require less tailpipe testing
MCNUTT: Development
Online college expands
Police find loyal friends
Turmoil engulfs Villa Hills
Warren tourism up despite downpours
Kentucky News Briefs
Tristate A.M. Report