By Stephanie Froese

Police place priority on safety for missing persons

Jan 19, 2011 | 11:54 AM

Concern swept the community during this past weekend when 11-year-old Kasten Rabitskin was reported missing.

It was a huge relief for his family when he just walked through the door of his home on Sunday afternoon, after not coming home after school Friday.

Kasten is under the care of his grandmother and some uncles because his mother died two years ago. What was a scary few days for Kasten’s family, breaks down to a miscommunication at the family level because it is believed Kasten was with an uncle during the time he was missing.

Sgt. Kelly McLean, with the Prince Albert Police Service said there are a few loose ends that are still under investigation.

“What we have is a timeline where we don’t know where this young man was. He was reported missing to us. There was an extensive police force utilized to try to locate him,” Mclean said.

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Now police are reviewing the situation to make sure Kasten is safe in his environment.

When dealing with a missing person’s case like this, police are physically out in the community checking residences and places where it is possible the missing person could be.

While the police force is working to change their policy in the missing persons unit to deal with the large number of missing youth, this situation doesn’t fall into the new system. The new policy is to address runaways. The police would like to see these types of cases go to social services to deal reasons why someone is running away.

In Kasten’s case he wasn’t a runaway from a care facility, he was “an 11 year old boy, where nobody knows where he (was),” McLean said

It wasn’t considered an Amber Alert because there was no confirmation that an abduction had taken place and no risk of serious injury or death from another person.

When it comes to charges McLean said that’s the last thing on their mind. They first want to make sure Kasten is safe and doing well after the ordeal.

Marcel Rabbitskin, one of Kasten’s uncles, said the family is glad he is home mentioning Kasten was already back to a favorite pastime of kids his age, playing video games.

sfroese@rawlco.com