A missing Melbourne schoolboy has not been seen for three days. He had not been to school for two weeks, but his family did not know.
Krishank Karthik, 16, also known as Krish, left his home in Truganina in Melbourne’s west at around 7.45am on Monday and headed to Suzanne Cory High School.
But the 11th grade student had not shown up for school and it later turned out that he had not been there for the past two weeks either.
It is believed that Krish travelled to New South Wales in the hours after his disappearance.
He was reportedly captured on CCTV the following day at an emergency shelter in Surry Hills, Sydney, near Central Station.
New South Wales police released the CCTV footage on Thursday showing him entering a building wearing a grey hoodie, long trousers and a backpack.
According to New South Wales Police, he was last seen on Cleveland Street in Redfern at around 4.50pm on Tuesday.
The reported sighting comes as his distraught mother, Shobana Karthik, recalled the last words Krish had spoken to her the night before he disappeared.
There has been a major turnaround in the search for Melbourne schoolboy Krishank Karthik (pictured), who has been missing for more than three days
NSW Police have released CCTV footage of Krishank spotted in Sydney on Tuesday
When Krish didn’t come home from school on Monday afternoon, Mrs. Karthik called his friends, who told her that Krish hadn’t been to school for weeks.
CCTV footage from their home on Monday morning showed Krish walking down the driveway carrying a small suitcase, a backpack and some clothes.
Later, at 1.20pm, he sold his phone to a shop on Swanston St in Melbourne’s CBD.
There were also reports that he had been seen at Melbourne Central Station.
But Krish has changed his public transport chip card and can therefore no longer be traced.
Ms Akhilesh said the family only discovered on Monday evening that the Year 11 pupil had not been at school for the past two weeks.
‘Krishank left home and said he was going to school but he didn’t go to school,’ she said Seven news.
“He comes home at the same time you come home from school.”
His school thought Krish was home sick and his family had no idea what he was doing when he should have been there.
“I cry all the time. I just pray that you come back, Krish,” his mother said.
“I haven’t slept a minute. He knows he’s the world, he’s our world.”
The night before he disappeared, Krish texted his mother asking when she would be home from the hospital, where she was visiting her ailing mother.
When she got home, she felt too tired to eat, but Krish convinced her to eat anyway. Together they watched cricket and ‘laughed and talked’.
Krish wanted to stay up late, but his mother told him to go to bed as he had an exam the next day.
Then he said to her, “Good night, Mom. Love you, Mom.”
Distraught mother Shobana Karthik (pictured) said Krish’s last words to her the night before he disappeared were: ‘Good night mom. Love you, mom’
The search for the teenager has been expanded after reports of 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,” Ms. Karthik said.
The family doesn’t understand why Krish disappeared.
His aunt Mathangi Akhilesh described him as a “brilliant” child who did very well in school and that there was nothing in his recent behaviour to indicate anything wrong.
“We spoke to his friends, they helped us with the investigation, and nothing, nothing out of the ordinary happened,” she said.
‘(It’s) totally out of character for him, Krishank is a… family loving guy.’
Krish is 177cm tall, of medium build and was wearing a grey hoodie, black tracksuit bottoms, black shoes and black Armani glasses when he was last seen.
If you have any information, please contact Crime Stoppers.