U.S. Marshalls seek help locating sixth-grader

A New Orleans task force has asked Bayou Justice readers to help find a missing 11-year-old boy.

Since early 2020, the U.S. Marshals Service Eastern District of Louisiana New Orleans Task Force, because of its robust Missing Child Unit, has helped investigate a 2017 parental kidnapping case. However, efforts to locate the mother and her son in several states have been unsuccessful.

In December 2019, the Kenner Police Department released a felony warrant for Rabia Khalid. Investigators charged with kidnapping her son when Aziz’s paternal family failed to locate him. At that point, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children got involved. The NCMEC is the nation’s largest and most influential child protection organization. According to their brochures, they “lead the fight to protect children, creating vital resources for them and those who keep them safe.”

The NCMEC maintains a liaison with missing child clearinghouses in fifty states. These offices provide training, technical help, and vital information to better assist investigators in handling missing-child cases.

Created in 1985 by the Louisiana Legislature, the Louisiana clearing house is the central repository of information about missing and exploited children here. Parents, guardians, law enforcement, and NCMEC provide the office with details and photos to send across the state and nation. The Louisiana Clearing House for Missing and Exploited Children (LACMEC) shares this information with local law enforcement agencies to assist in the recovery of these missing children.

Besides making local and national resources available, LACMEC gives parents and guardians vital information to help their children return home.

Sargeant Michelle King of the LACMEC said, “The first 24 hours are the most critical for locating a missing child” and shared these actions to take when a child goes missing:

• If the child is missing from home, comb the house. Check anywhere a child could crawl, hide, and possibly fall asleep.
• If your child disappears when you are away from home—at a shopping center, for example—notify the store manager and security office and request help in finding your child. Then telephone the police immediately.
• If your child has run away, contact friends of the child; chances are good they’ve confided their plans to a friend. Then, provide this information to law enforcement.
• When talking with law enforcement, try to stay calm. First, identify yourself, and give your location. Then, ask the agency to send an officer to take a report on your missing child.
• Be prepared to give descriptive information on your child, including name, height, weight, and date of birth. Also, provide information on specific identifiers such as eyeglasses, braces, pierced ears, and a description of the clothing your child was last seen wearing.
• Listen carefully to the instructions of the police and respond to their questions.
• Request that investigators immediately enter your child into the National Crime Information Center’s (NCIC) Missing Persons File. This action will assist other law enforcement agencies in identifying children in another community. State and federal law require NCIC entries for every missing child.
• Contact the Louisiana Clearinghouse for Missing and Exploited Children by calling 1-800-434-8007.
• Contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children by calling their nationwide toll-free number 1-800-THE-LOST.

Investigators say they hope the November 1 episode of Unsolved Mysteries, which premiered November 1 on Netflix, will help develop essential leads. This episode featured fugitive Rabia Khalid and Abdul “Aziz” Khan, the sixth-grade parental abduction victim.

Aziz turns twelve on November 13. He was last known to be with his fugitive mother, Rabia Khalid Bourgeois, and her husband, Elliot Blake Bourgeois, in the Atlanta area in the Fall of 2017.   

Rabia and Aziz’s father had been undergoing a custody battle in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, and Rabia allegedly refused to cooperate with directives from the court. Then, around Thanksgiving 2017, Rabia and her husband, Elliot, sold their vehicles in Atlanta and disappeared. The Atlanta Police Department later listed Aziz as a missing person.

No one in Louisiana has heard from the Bourgeoises in years.   

Crimestoppers Greater New Orleans (GNO) reward and the USMS offer rewards in the case. In addition, Aziz’s paternal family has also agreed to put up a sizable reward for any information that leads to his recovery. Over six years have passed since the event criminally separated this father from his son. 

Rabia Khalid Bourgeois has ties to Atlanta, Lawrenceville, Duluth, Georgia, and the Huntsville, Alabama, area. Her husband, Elliot Blake Bourgeois, 40, is not wanted. However, based on USMS interviews with his family and Rabia’s family, investigators believe he may have valuable information about where Rabia is hiding with her son. 

Please provide information on the whereabouts of Rabia, Aziz, or Elliot Blake Bourgeois by calling Crimestoppers GNO at (504) 822-1111 or the USMS East Louisiana New Orleans Task Force at (504) 589-6872. All tips will remain anonymous.