However, Smits yesterday told the Chronicle that the search was by no means over here, as a local investigation firm has been hired to pursue the case.

Smits' Netherlands child tracker agency has been notified to start "digging" in neighbouring Brazil and Suriname, two possible countries where Ploeger might have fled, he said.

He said that at this point, the case is at the "dead end of the line" as they have effectively lost track of Ploeger.

Ms. Aneta Joanna Szadkowska, the mother of kidnapped children Pascal Ploeger, three, and Timotheus Ploeger, four, is in a further depressed state and can hardly manage to keep up a smile.

But while Smits and Szadkowska leave Guyana on Tuesday, city firm, 21st Century Investigation Services has been left to track the case here.
Criminologist Mr. Errol VanNooten, a crime prevention specialist with more than 30 years of "highly investigative and crime prevention experience in the U.S.", heads the company.

He told the Chronicle that his firm will be formulating an investigative plan to track Ploeger and to develop a profile of the alleged child abductor to determine his behaviourial pattern.

In addition, VanNooten said that his company will also be circulating posters in strategic locations.

He said there are other plans which cannot be stated for the investigation could be compromised.

21st Century Investigation Services has established professional affiliation with Applied Investigations and Security Services, a fully licensed and bonded company in the United States and a member of the U.S. National Association of Investigation Specialists.

The firm is also aligned to Factfinders Business Investigators Limited, of Trinidad and Tobago, forming one of the Caribbean's most comprehensive investigative team, providing services in Guyana, the Caribbean and North America, the company's business profile states.

Smits and Szadkowska yesterday said they are thankful for all the help they received from Guyana in their quest to locate the children.

Ploeger, 34, a Dutch national, allegedly fled the Netherlands a year ago with his two children even though he lost parental custody on four separate occasions during a bitter divorce battle in his native country.

The search for Ploeger and the children has led Smits to Spain, Belgium, Germany and Italy.

Smits said Ploeger is wanted by the Dutch Police, the Venezuelan law enforcement agency, and by Interpol (the international police organisation) for "international child abduction".

Ploeger married Polish citizen Szadkowska on October 3rd, 1997. They lived together for about three years.

In Guyana, information has led Smits to Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice. The house he was led to was one where a "white guy and his kid" stayed, residents told him.

He was also told that Ploeger was last week seen on a bus heading to Linden.

The Linden link too proved futile and it is thought that Ploeger might have taken the trail to Lethem on the Guyana/Brazil border.

Smits received support from the Police here in his search for the alleged kidnapper and the two boys.