‘It’s like he got to the Atlanta airport, he cleared customs and then he stepped off the face of the Earth’

Eustace Martin with his grandmother Mrs. Martin of College Street, St. Kitts

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, JUNE 3, 2011 (CUOPM) – Still no word on the missing 18-year-old Eustace Victor Martin, who disappeared at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport after leaving St. Kitts on a Delta Airlines flight last Saturday.

Police in Atlanta said Martin, a Canadian citizen, was heading home to Vancouver from St. Kitts. He stopped in Atlanta for a layover, but never boarded his connecting flight to Seattle.

New reports from Atlanta said Martins mother and stepfather, Reena and Al Dales, reported Martin missing when he didn’t arrive in Vancouver. Delta officials told Reena Dales that her son landed at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and was cleared through customs. According to a police report, he was last seen by a Delta representative at the flight’s gate.

“It’s like he got to the Atlanta airport, he cleared customs and then he stepped off the face of the Earth,” Martin’s stepfather told 11Alive. “We just don’t know.”

Airport officials paged him throughout the day with no response. The Atlanta Police Department, along with Canadian and St. Kitts police, soon joined the investigation.

Airport surveillance cameras show Martin entering customs Saturday evening, but there is no trace of him afterward. His last two flight tickets to Seattle and Vancouver are still unused.

Martin’s stepfather, Al Dales, said Martin had only $50 to his name. He didn’t have any credit cards or a cell phone that could be used to trace him.

“This is very much out of character,” Dales said. “He’s a responsible kid, he’s not a bad kid that’s involved with drugs or gangs or alcohol or anything like that.”

Martin spent the last year in St. Kitts with his biological father. According to his mother, he phoned them about a month ago and said he was ready to come home.

Martin is approximately six feet tall and weighs about 160 pounds. He was last seen wearing a red and blue plaid shirt, blue khaki pants, and blue and red shoes. He flew into Atlanta from Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis in the West Indies.

Anyone who sees Martin or knows his whereabouts is asked to call the Atlanta Police Department’s Missing Persons Squad at 404-546-4235.