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Prudence Griffiths is living through the darkest chapter of her life -- a period defined by unbearable anguish, devastating loss, and unimaginable cruelty.

Her nightmare began on Friday, May 23, when her eight-year-old son, Navardo Blackburn, vanished without a trace. For four agonising days, she combed the streets of Gregory Park, St Catherine, praying for his safe return. But last Tuesday, her worst fears were realised. Navardo's decomposing body was found stuffed in the trunk of an abandoned car on Melvin Avenue, five minutes away from her home.

The pain of losing her son has been crippling, but Griffiths says the grief has been compounded by heartless accusations. Instead of receiving support, she has found herself under attack by online users and even some members of her own community, who have baselessly accused her and her mother of playing a role in the child's death.

"We had to get counselling because people a say mi a careless mother and dis and dat," she said between tears.

"Mi love mi son with mi entire heart, and to hear people a say that cut mi into pieces," she added.

Navardo, who had an intellectual disability, and his three siblings - ages 15, five and four - were left in the care of their grandmother on the day he disappeared. She said she briefly left the children to collect food nearby, but when she returned to the house, the three younger children were not there. She said she immediately went in search of them and spotted them at a nearby playfield.

As she approached them, Navardo dashed onto Melvin Avenue. That was the last time he was seen alive. Griffiths said she passed the car in which her son's body was found several times, as she scoured the community looking for him.

"Mi know mi son nah pull no car door go in there, so mi never look [inside]. It just strange that when I passed the car Tuesday and a wonder how it smell like that, people gonna say they were smelling something from Sunday. But they didn't call anyone, and everyone know my child was missing," she said. Griffiths described the hours after Navardo's disappearance as horrifying.

"The hours searching for mi son was terrible, and it even worse now that him dead. From the Friday night, as mi come from work, mi just change off mi uniform and mi come out with mi madda and we just a search. We search and search, and no sign of mi son. A crowd came out to view his body, but not to help look for him," she said. As the nation's children continue to go missing on a daily basis, Griffiths urged persons to be more compassionate and less judgemental.

"I don't think people take missing children as serious as they should. A nuff time we see children missing and yuh hear people a say dem no really missing ... a friend or man yard dem deh," she said.

"And in my case, some a say a mi kill off mi baby because him autistic. But from that little boy born and in hospital, every minute mi over there, and mi do it without a father," Griffiths said.