In a case that continues to raise more questions than answers, two-year-old Tangena Hussain vanished on the evening of October 2, 2008, in Detroit, Michigan. At the time of her disappearance, she was in the care of her mother's live-in boyfriend. The little girl, described as being of Bangladeshi descent with black hair, brown eyes, and a noticeable burn scar on her upper lip and chin area, was last seen wearing a brown long-sleeved shirt with a cartoon character on the front, white nylon cargo pants, and gold-colored sandals. The circumstances surrounding her disappearance from a locked car at a gas station have been met with skepticism and have left her family and investigators searching for the truth.
The account of what happened to Tangena that night comes solely from her mother's boyfriend, Jamrul Hussain, who is not related to Tangena despite sharing the same last name. He told police that he stopped at a Marathon gas station on Greenfield Road to purchase gum and juice at approximately 9:02 p.m. He claimed to have left Tangena asleep in his locked, red, four-door 1997 Geo Prism while he went inside the store. Surveillance footage confirms he was inside the store for about four minutes, but there were no cameras focused on the area where he had parked. When he returned to his vehicle at 9:06 p.m., he said Tangena was gone. Instead of immediately contacting the authorities, he drove to the nearby Northland Mall to pick up Tangena's mother, Nilufa Begum, from her job. It was only after returning to the gas station with her that a missing child report was filed at 9:30 p.m.
The investigation into Tangena's disappearance was hampered by what police described as cultural and language barriers. An exhaustive search of the area surrounding the gas station and the neighborhoods where Tangena lived yielded no clues. Jamrul Hussain's behavior following the disappearance drew suspicion. He reportedly became overly emotional during two separate lie detector tests, preventing them from being completed. In a separate and disturbing development, a 15-year-old girl came forward after seeing Jamrul on a news report and accused him of kidnapping and raping her. While the kidnapping charge was dropped, he was convicted of criminal sexual misconduct and sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. Despite being a person of interest, he was never formally named a suspect in Tangena's disappearance. In the years since she vanished, Tangena's mother has returned to Bangladesh. The case remains unresolved, with a $20,000 reward offered by the FBI for information leading to her location. The question of what happened to the little girl in the four minutes her caregiver was inside the gas station continues to haunt investigators and all who knew her.
Tangena Hussain was a two-year-old girl who disappeared in Detroit, Michigan, on October 2, 2008, while she was in the care of her mother’s live-in boyfriend, Jamrul Hussain. Shortly after 9:00 that evening, Jamrul stopped at a Marathon gas station in the 20500 block of Greenfield Road, near Eight Mile Road. He later told investigators that he left Tangena sitting inside his red four-door 1997 Geo Prism while he entered the store to buy gum and juice. Store surveillance footage showed him inside between approximately 9:02 and 9:06 p.m. When he returned to the vehicle, he said the toddler was gone, even though he maintained that the car had been locked. Tangena, a small child with black hair, brown eyes and a burn scar extending across her upper-lip and chin area, had seemingly vanished during a period of only a few minutes.
Tangena had spent much of that day with Jamrul after he dropped her mother, Nilufa Begum, off at work at Northland Mall during the afternoon. Jamrul and Tangena were reportedly returning to the mall to collect Nilufa when they stopped at the gas station. According to the account he gave police, he did not immediately search the surrounding area or contact authorities after discovering that Tangena was missing. Instead, he drove to the mall without her and picked up Nilufa. When the child’s mother asked where her daughter was, Jamrul reportedly told her that he would take her to where Tangena was. The couple then returned to the gas station and asked employees whether security cameras covered the portion of the property where the car had been parked. Cameras recorded activity inside the store, but there was no surveillance footage of the vehicle or the area from which Tangena was said to have disappeared.
Police were contacted at approximately 9:30 p.m., about half an hour after Tangena was last seen. The circumstances immediately presented investigators with a frightening mystery. A toddler of her age could not travel far without assistance, yet no reliable witness reported seeing her leave the vehicle, walking through the gas-station property or being carried away. Authorities conducted an extensive search around Greenfield and Eight Mile Roads and also examined neighborhoods in Detroit and Hamtramck near the family’s home. Despite the urgency of the response and the attention brought to the case, searchers found no clothing, footwear or other physical evidence showing where Tangena had gone.
At the time she disappeared, Tangena was approximately three feet two inches tall and weighed about 34 pounds. She was wearing a brown long-sleeved shirt with a cartoon character printed on the front, white nylon cargo pants with several pockets and gold-colored sandals. Her scar above and below the mouth was considered a particularly important identifying feature. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children continues to publicize her case, preserving her photograph and identifying information in the hope that someone may recognize her or remember something from the night she vanished.
Investigators scrutinized Jamrul’s account because he was the last known person with Tangena and because of the delay and unusual actions following her reported disappearance. Both Jamrul and Nilufa underwent polygraph examinations. Public case summaries state that Nilufa passed hers, while Jamrul’s results were considered inconclusive because he was reportedly too emotional during the examination; he later declined to take another test. Tangena’s mother initially defended him and said he had cared for the child like a daughter, but she later publicly questioned his version of events and expressed the belief that he knew more than he had revealed. Police likewise voiced doubts about the story, although the available public record does not show that Jamrul was ever charged with abducting or harming Tangena.
Separate from Tangena’s case, Jamrul was prosecuted for a sexual offense involving a teenage girl and was sentenced to a prison term of up to 15 years. That conviction did not resolve Tangena’s disappearance and did not establish what happened to her. Investigators were never able to collect enough evidence to charge him in connection with the missing child, and no other person has been publicly prosecuted for taking or harming her. The unresolved questions have therefore remained the same: whether Tangena was removed from the car by someone else, whether she had already disappeared before the vehicle reached the gas station, or whether the explanation given to police concealed events that occurred elsewhere.
In 2009, the FBI announced a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to Tangena’s location and appealed directly to the public for help. The reward reflected the seriousness of the investigation and the belief that someone might possess information capable of breaking the case open. Even with federal assistance, widespread publicity and repeated efforts to generate new leads, no verified later sighting established that Tangena was alive elsewhere, and no recovery revealed that she had died. Her NamUs and National Center for Missing & Exploited Children records continue to list her as missing, while the Detroit Police Department remains the investigating agency.
Tangena was only two years old when she vanished, too young to explain where she had been taken, seek help independently or find her own way home. Her disappearance left behind a mother without her child and a case resting almost entirely upon the disputed account of the last adult known to have seen her. In overview, Tangena Hussain disappeared during a reported four-minute stop at a Detroit gas station on October 2, 2008; the vehicle was not visible on surveillance footage, the account of her disappearance drew suspicion, extensive searches uncovered no trace of her and no one has been charged in her case. Years later, the little girl in the brown cartoon shirt, white cargo pants and gold sandals remains missing, and the truth about what happened that night remains painfully unknown.
Last Seen: Oct 2, 2008
