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As she combed through sections of Waterford, St Catherine, yesterday, Prudence Griffiths was a picture of despair. Her face was streaked with tear stains and perspiration, and her feet were partially covered in dust.

Griffiths has been restless since Friday -- the last time she saw her eight-year-old autistic son, Navardo Blackburn. With tears streaming down her cheeks, she pleaded with the public for help.

"Mi a ask if anyone see mi son to just reach out to the nearest police station and leave him there. Mi can't eat and mi stressed out. I want back my baby," she said.

According to police reports, Navardo was last seen at a playing field on Queens Avenue in Gregory Park. He is of dark complexion and slim build. Griffiths said she received a distressing call from her mother informing her that the child was missing. Her heart skipped a beat, but she never imagined that the day would end without them being reunited.

"Mi reach home and we start search from Friday until now and all now. Mi never come off the road until about 2 a.m. Saturday morning and mi go by the station and the police say we must go back go search for him and if we don't find him we should come back by the station. We went back and I make the report," she said.

As she cradled one of Navardo's younger siblings in her lap, Ivy Walcott's eyes welled up with tears. The missing boy's grandmother, she said Navardo and his three siblings were left in her care on Friday. Walcott told THE STAR she left the children briefly to collect food at a nearby fish fry.

"When mi come back in the house and call dem I realise the older sister, who is 15, was sleeping and the other three was not in the house," the grandmother said.

Walcott said she immediately went searching for Navardo and his younger siblings. She spotted them by a playing field, about five minutes away. As she made her way towards the children, young Navardo saw her and dashed into a nearby lane -- Melvin Avenue. That was the last time she laid eyes on him.

Walcott said it was the first time Navardo had ventured to the playing field, though he would sometimes sit quietly by the gate.

"Normally, if you see him and ask him what him doing outside him would just run and go under the bed. I went back to the house to check and he wasn't there and I have been searching from that time until now and no sign of him. No one in the community said they see him and it surprise mi because everyone knows him. Not even on the avenue that him ran, anyone see him," Walcott added. Griffiths also said her son was not known to wander far from the house.

"This is the first time something like this has ever happen and you can ask anybody. Mi feel like mi a go crazy because I don't know where mi son is. Mi son is autistic and him know him name but it will take long for him to say it. He will not know his address or so on," she said.

Griffiths and several relatives were led to search along Dyke Road and in a nearby fishing village following a disturbing phone call that turned out to be a false lead.

"I don't know what happen to my son but I feel like somebody have him. This morning (yesterday) people a call mi say dem find body outta a Dyke Road so we go out there and search and nothing. We stop a police vehicle and the police say nothing like dat. First dis ever a happen. Right now although mi know crocodile deh in the mangroves, all in deh we deh a search fi mi son but no sign of him," Griffiths said.

She also shared that while Navardo had completed basic school, he had not yet started primary school. He was awaiting an appointment for assessment before being placed in a learning institution.

Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Navardo Blackburn is asked to contact the Caymanas police at 876-988-1719, 119 police emergency number or the nearest police station.