One year ago, a tiny four-week-old baby, Bryan Dos Santos Gomes, was abducted from his mother’s arms at knifepoint by a woman they had stopped to help and has never been seen since.

Bryan, then 28 days old, was abducted on the afternoon of Dec. 1, 2006, after his mother and a friend, Janice Duarte, got into the kidnapper’s Ford Explorer with their babies. They intended to direct the woman to an address in Fort Myers, Florida. The seemingly friendly woman suddenly changed demeanor and forcibly abducted Bryan at knifepoint.

The mother, Maria Ramos Dos Santos, still cries frequently. She describes not knowing what has happened to her little boy as a constant, aching pain with no relief.

It remains a baffling case. No ransom demand has been made, and there were theories that baby Bryan was abducted in reprisal by people smugglers as their parents were smuggled into the country and still owed a debt to the smugglers. That theory has now been discounted.

Police believe the kidnapping was a random act as there was an earlier report about the same woman trying to lure another woman and her young grandchild into the Explorer about four hours before Bryan’s abduction.

Bryan’s parents have since had another baby, a one-year-old girl. As illegal immigrants from Brazil, they say they continue to live under the threat of deportation.

In memory of those who are still missing.