Gail Alexan­der

Mur­dered Japan­ese pan­nist Asa­mi Na­gakiya was among a group of her com­pa­tri­ots who played mas with Lega­cy on Car­ni­val Tues­day and had been with the band up to 1 pm that day, but wasn't seen af­ter that, Lega­cy band­leader Mike "Big Mike" An­toine said last night.

Dressed com­plete­ly in black, An­toine spoke about Na­gakiya's last Car­ni­val to a gath­er­ing at PCS Ni­tro­gen Sil­ver Stars' New­town pa­n­yard, where pan­nists from Sil­ver Stars, All Stars, four oth­er bands she played with on oc­ca­sion, friends and oth­ers paid trib­ute to her.

Mem­bers said the Rosary and sang hymns be­fore tes­ti­mo­ni­als about the young mu­si­cian.

An­toine opened his con­tri­bu­tion by say­ing the last time she was seen was in one of his cos­tumes, so it was fit­ting for him to speak. He said Na­gakiya was one of 12 Japan­ese vis­i­tors who played in his band.

"I would al­ways look af­ter the group," he said twice.

An­toine said on Car­ni­val Tues­day he was still look­ing out for the group and when they left the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah and went to Adam Smith Square, Na­gakiya was still with the band up to 1 pm. But he said when Lega­cy went down­town "I didn't see her".

He said af­ter as­sist­ing po­lice with try­ing to iden­ti­fy the body all day, he fi­nal­ly got con­fir­ma­tion it was Na­gakiya late Mon­day.

He said the Japan­ese group were "the sweet­est girls."

"They give every­body ah wine and a kiss and jump up ... To­day is a sad day for T&T and for Car­ni­val," he said.

A fe­male band­mate of Na­gakiya, Niki­ta, broke in­to tears when she re­lat­ed mov­ing text mes­sages that Na­gakiya had sent to her ask­ing to be her friend and for her to stay in touch since she want­ed to learn more Eng­lish.

"She was a gem, a true gem," she said.

Band arranger Mar­cus Ash, an­oth­er Sil­ver Stars col­league, said: "She was more Tri­ni than the av­er­age Tri­ni. She knew all about chad­don beni and our cul­ture. I took the group to the beach and gave them a sip of pun­cheon rum and Asa­mi screamed and ran in­to the wa­ter. She played with many bands and it was nev­er for a price. She was very well known in the pan fra­ter­ni­ty and she did it all out of love."

Ash, col­league Ju­nior "Pep­py" Goolcha­ran and oth­er Sil­ver Stars col­leagues al­so slammed com­ments made in re­la­tion to Na­gakiya's death by Port-of-Spain May­or Ray­mond Tim Kee, say­ing they were "out of place", "dis­re­spect­ful", "very dis­gust­ing" and "com­plete­ly in­ap­pro­pri­ate". They added that she nev­er en­gaged in vul­gar be­hav­iour, didn't even know how to wine and dressed mod­est­ly, but knew her way around the city. (See Page A5)