A 23-year-old woman and a 48-year-old man have been missing since Tuesday night, and it is suspected that they were abducted by bandits who used the woman's car in an attempted robbery at Section `K' Campbellville early yesterday morning. (See other story on page 3.)

Missing are Marceline Basdeo called 'Marcie' of 163 Leonora, West Bank Demerara and Andre Ramphal of Subryanville. The two have not been seen since Tuesday night.

Stabroek News understands that both Basdeo and Ramphal, who is the Managing Director of Anral Shipping on Broad Street, attended Latin dance classes at the Hotel Tower on Tuesday.

Father of the young woman, Edward Basdeo, yesterday told Stabroek News that his daughter left for her job at Universal Airlines on High Street early Tuesday morning. He said the young woman, a University of Guyana graduate, usually attended dancing class after work and would arrive home at around 9 pm.

The grieving father said that after his daughter, the older of two children, did not come home at her usual time he became worried because she would call on her cellular phone whenever she planned on staying out late.

The man said that about midnight he and another relative decided to travel to Georgetown in search of his daughter and he reported the matter at three police stations, Vreed-en-Hoop, Brickdam and Alberttown. He said he was told by the law enforcement officers that he would have to wait until 24 hours had elapsed before he could make an official report.

The man said that he was told by his daughter's colleagues that she left her place of work at around 5 pm. It was also reported to him that she had attended the dance class.

He said that searches conducted by himself, relatives and friends unearthed his daughter's clothing along with other documents near DDL at the corner of Water and Schumaker streets.

He said that the clothes were his daughter's working apparel and pointed out that she would have changed from these into her dance gear and the clothing would have been left in the car. Her cellular phone was reportedly found in Linden and was handed over to the police in that town.

Ramphal's employees yesterday said that they only knew something was amiss when Basdeo's family contacted them and enquired about his whereabouts disclosing to them that the young woman was missing. The employees said that Ramphal was known to Basdeo's family for some time now and it was known that the two took Latin dance classes together.

They said they then began to search for their boss and they were the ones who discovered his car, PGG 6982, locked in front of the Hotel Tower. The car was taken away by the police who were informed about its location.

Basdeo's burgundy Corona car, PGG 232, was found abandoned yesterday in front of the American School riddled with bullet holes.

The young woman's parents on hearing of the discovery of the car travelled to the scene and her mother, Joycelyn, began screaming and calling the name of her daughter. She subsequently fainted and had to be assisted by persons in the area.

Up to late last night, the police were continuing their search for the two missing persons.