There was a shocking twist in the desperate search for a missing Melbourne student when his mother recalled their last conversation hours before he vanished.
Krishank Karthik, 16, also known as Krish, left his home in Truganina, in Melbourne’s west, at about 7.45am on Monday heading to Suzanne Cory High School.
But the 11th grader did not show up to school and it later turned out that, unbeknownst to his family, he had not been there for the past two weeks.
Krish is believed to have travelled to New South Wales hours after her disappearance.
He was reportedly caught on CCTV at an emergency accommodation centre in Surry Hills, Sydney, near Central Station, the following day.
New South Wales Police on Thursday released CCTV footage showing him entering a building wearing a grey hoodie, shorts and a backpack.
He was last seen on Cleveland Street in Redfern at around 4.50pm on Tuesday, according to NSW Police.
The reported sighting comes as his distraught mother, Shobana Karthik, recalled the last words Krish said to her the night before he went missing.
When he did not return home from school on Monday afternoon, Ms Karthik called his friends, who told her that Krish had not been to school for weeks.
CCTV footage from his home showed Krish walking down the driveway on Monday morning holding a small suitcase, a backpack and some clothes.
There has been a major twist in the search for Melbourne schoolboy Krishank Karthik (pictured), who has been missing for more than three days.
New South Wales Police have released CCTV images of Krishank seen in Sydney on Tuesday
He later sold his phone at 1.20pm at a shop on Swanston St in Melbourne’s CBD.
There were also reports that he had been seen at Melbourne Central Station.
But Krish changed his travel card and he cannot be traced through it.
Ms Akhilesh said the family only found out on Monday evening that the Year 11 student had not attended school for the past two weeks.
“Krishank has been going home saying he was going to school and he hasn’t been going to school,” she said. Seven news.
‘He comes home at the same time you come back from school.’
His school thought Krish had been home sick and his family has no idea what he was doing when he was supposed to be there.
“I can’t stop crying. All I pray is that you come back, Krish,” his mother said.
“I haven’t slept a minute. He knows that he is the world, that he is our world.”
The night before he disappeared, Krish texted his mother asking when he would be home from the hospital, where he was visiting his sick mother.
When she got home she was too tired to eat, but Krish persuaded her to eat dinner and they watched cricket together and “laughed and talked”.
Krish wanted to stay up late, but his mother told him he had to go to bed because he had an exam the next day.
That’s when he said, “Good night, Mom. I love you, Mom.”
Distraught mother Shobana Karthik (pictured) said Krish’s last words to her the night before he disappeared were: “Good night, Mom. I love you, Mom.”
The search for the teenager has been expanded following reported sightings in Sydney on Tuesday.
That was the last time she saw him. “He didn’t wake me up in the morning because he knew I was tired,” Karthik said.
The family doesn’t understand why Krish disappeared.
His aunt Mathangi Akhilesh described him as a “bright” boy who did very well at school and that nothing in his recent behaviour suggested anything was wrong.
“We’ve talked to his friends, they’ve been helping us with the investigation, and nothing, nothing unusual,” he said.
“It’s very unusual. Krishank is a family-loving child.”
Krish is 1.77m tall, of medium build and was wearing a grey hoodie, black sweatpants, black shoes and black Armani sunglasses when he was last seen.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers.
