MP of the week: Kevin Persad

This week’s featured missing person is Kevin Anthony Persad, a 29-year-old man who disappeared while swimming off the coast of St. Petersburg, Florida on September 15, 2010. This case isn’t a big mystery. He’s presumed drowned, but they’ve never found his remains. I hope they are located someday.

Kevin is described as Asian (originally from Trinidad and Tobago, which has a high percentage of Indo-Caribbean people in its population) with black hair and brown eyes, 5’10 tall and 145 pounds. He was working in a customer service job but dreamed of being a fashion designer. Unfortunately his dreams probably ended in the Atlantic that day eleven years ago.

The pitfalls of the trade

It goes with the territory that I hear from mentally ill people on a regular basis, but this past 24 hours have been quite exceptional. I might have acquired a stalker. Again. (Remember her? She kept emailing me for AGES, even after I reported her to the police.)

So this new guy has sent me 17 emails just since yesterday, some of them quite long. He believes he might be a missing child. I’m quite sure he isn’t, but even if he was, he’s also sending the same emails to the relevant law enforcement agency so I can’t do anything more for him than he’s already done himself.

He’s schizophrenic. I’m not even guessing this, because he mentioned his diagnosis in several of the emails. The first one at least made it clear enough what he wanted from me, but since then they’ve degenerated into basically gibberish, such as these two (click for close-up view):

He sent a bunch of his documents too, scanned identity cards and such. So I know his name and address and a lot more besides. Fortunately it’s a long way away from me. Based on the scanned documents he sent me, it appears the authorities where he lives are already aware of him and his problems.

The poor guy clearly needs help but it’s not the kind I can provide. Nothing to do at this point but hit the block button.