'My missing sister is alive'

Identical twin hopes her picture on Facebook may help find her

SHUAN SMILLIE

shaun.smillie@inl.co.za  

Veronisha Adams knows what her missing sister Veronique looks like – she sees her every day in the mirror.

The sisters are identical twins and they were separated at the age of 11 months, when Veronique was abducted by their nanny.

That was 23 years ago and Veronisha is now hoping that the power of social media and the face they both share will finally bring her sister home.

“I have been getting my friends to post photographs of me on Facebook, in the hope that someone comes forward and says they saw her,” said Veronisha.

The more people who see Veronisha on Facebook, the greater the odds are of someone, or even Veronique herself, spotting the photograph.

Veronique disappeared on March 6, 1989 from Finch Street in Eldorado Park. Two weeks earlier, Veronisha’s mother Junice Adams had hired a nanny, who gave her name as Beauty Mkwanazi.

“At the time, she told me that she would be going home to Pietermaritzburg over Easter and that she would come back with her ID book,” said Adams.

On the day of Veronisha’s disappearance, Adams was at work. Her brother, Nolan Ferreira, arrived at the house to visit the children and discovered Veronique missing.

He called Adams and asked if she had sent Mkwanazi and Veronique to the clinic or shop.

When she arrived home, Adams found that not only was her daughter missing, the nanny had also stolen some of her clothes and a suitcase. “But she took Veronique, just with the clothes she had on.”

In the two decades that Veronique has been missing, Adams has travelled the country chasing down false leads.

She said the police weren’t helpful in searching for her daughter. Dockets have gone missing.

She also discovered that a case number she was given related not to the disappearance of Veronique, but to a reckless and drunk driving case.

In 2005, Adams’s husband Jacobus died of a heart attack, and she believes the cause was grief for their missing daughter.

There have been several sightings. Whenever a story about the disappearance appeared in the media, she would get phone calls.

All she would need was a photograph of the child, and she would know straight away that it was not her child.

Recently, she paid for a girl to travel to Joburg from Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal.

When she arrived, one quick glance told her it wasn’t Veronique.

One of her strongest leads, believes Adams, was a sighting of a young girl in the 1990s in Ramotswa, Botswana. That girl went to St Theresa’s Convent.

But by the time Adams got to Botswana, the child had disappeared and people told her not to meddle.

Adams also tried to track down the nanny. A man from Durban got in touch with Adams.

He told her the same woman had worked for him, but had disappeared after his house was burgled.

A photograph of the woman was given to the police, but Adams never saw it and the picture has since been lost.

Now Adams’s search is focused less on finding Mkwanazi and instead appealing to her grown daughter to come forward.

“I will one day see her. There are people who know her,” said Adams.

Veronisha also believes Veronique is alive; she can feel her.

“I get certain feelings, I can’t explain it in words. It is because I am a twin,” Veronisha said.

If you have information about Veronique, contact Junice Adams at 072 687 5108.