?It is happening too often. People, especially women and children, are disappearing without a trace, and no one knows what has happened to them. In a small place like Trinidad and Tobago, where "macoing" is a form of recreation, people have vanished and no one knows a thing.
Take, for instance, the case of Denise Barcant, 46, a resident of St Ann's. She left home in her car and never returned. No Denise, no car, in a small place like T&T. Something has to be radically wrong. Were these people sold as part of the international human trafficking fiasco, or were they killed? No one in the Police Service can shed light on this. Was this a case of Denise being killed and her body buried? Someone must know. A source said a convicted man in prison wants to tell the police where a number of bodies were buried, but he wants a favourable response from the State concerning a reduced sentence. The convict is making people believe that he has that kind of information and can work a deal with the State. Have the authorities gone after this man and his information? Only time will tell. Denise was not the only person to disappear without a trace.
The most celebrated of them is the case of Juliet Tam. A schoolteacher by profession, Tam disappeared without a trace while jogging in 1985 and has not been seen again. She went jogging in Arima and just disappeared. Although there were calls that she was spotted and that she was seen in England, Tam remained missing. There is the case of Vijay Persad, ten, who disappeared in front of his family's home in New Grant five years ago and he, too, was not found. To make matters more mysterious, a fire wiped out his family last year. What about Minerva Gaskin, 67, recently as last month. She left home to go to the Licensing Department, Port-of-Spain, and never returned. She was seen at the Licensing Department, but what happened after she left? Crime Stoppers has found it so important, that the organisation is now offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to her whereabouts.
Today, we focus on Denise Barcant. Denise, the first-born child of Anne Barcant, vanished without a trace on October 24, 2008. The circumstances surrounding her disappearance remain a mystery.
Anne told the media sometime ago: "If you have a sore inside you and the ointment isn't there to heal it, it remains a sore, and every time you talk about it or somebody brings it up, it's still a sore. You know it's not healing and you can't heal yet." She added: "I rely on God's word and I live on that, so any time I tend to want to go off on a tangent I get back into God's word and I believe he is taking care of her and I trust him. I have to trust him always, it doesn't mean you don't feel to cry sometimes, you still miss her, but God never makes mistakes." Anne and Denise lived together at St Ann's. They were also both regular parishioners at the St Finbar's Roman Catholic Church, Diego Martin. According to investigators, Denise's disappearance was a great mystery to them. Denise made lunch, and dressed in home clothes, she drove out of the driveway in her aqua-blue Toyota Yaris, PBT 9228. No one knew where Denise was headed that day. She never returned.
During their search, the Barcant family went around the country, hoping that Denise would be found. They even hired planes to conduct an air search, in the event Denise could have gone over a cliff.
The family got a number of calls. They had to decide which calls were genuine and which were not. Anne Barcant, in particular, has not given up the search although 11 months have gone by. She told the media: "My life is...I call it waiting, waiting on an answer, waiting on some sign, waiting on something. I don't want to close my mind to anything you know, because I would say 'Okay Lord, if she is with you in heaven and is happy just let me know that she is happy,' and I will be happy, if she is still here, where is she? She can't just be living with a family, and I don't really want to even think that she would have been taken as a human trafficker." Anne operates daily as though Denise is still around. Denise Barcant is of light complexion, five feet, eight inches tall, 115 pounds and has brown, greying hair of shoulder length. She was last seen wearing a shirt, short pants and blue slippers. She had been depressed for years, relatives added. Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Denise Barcant, or her vehicle, can report it to the police, or call Crime Stoppers at 800- TIPS.
