Po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing the dis­ap­pear­ance of Der­rick Tardieu, 70, and his wife, Clari­bel Tardieu, 47, af­ter rel­a­tives re­ceived a ran­som de­mand late Sat­ur­day night. The cou­ple, who live at Blanchette Bay, Monas, were re­port­ed miss­ing af­ter a fam­i­ly friend re­ceived a dis­tress­ing voice note from a for­eign num­ber in which Der­rick said he had been kid­napped and “dey have meh and want 2.5 mil­lion US for meh re­lease.”

The mes­sage was passed to the cou­ple’s son, Phillip Tardieu, who went to his fa­ther’s home and found it ran­sacked, with no sign of ei­ther par­ent. At­tempts to reach Der­rick by phone were un­suc­cess­ful.

The mat­ter has been re­ferred to the An­ti-Kid­nap­ping Unit, and in­ves­ti­ga­tors are work­ing to ver­i­fy the au­then­tic­i­ty of the ran­som de­mand and trace the cou­ple’s where­abouts.