The funeral of an 88-year-old woman from San Juan, which was stopped by a High Court Judge to allow for an autopsy to determine whether she had been allegedly starved to death, can now proceed.
During a hearing yesterday, High Court Judge Frank Seepersad discharged the injunction he granted last Thursday to Neffritte Bocas-Larkin against her sister Elisha Bocas.
Presenting brief submissions, Bocas-Larkin’s lawyer Carl Mattis informed the court that the autopsy was conducted by pathologist Professor Hubert Daisley, last Friday, and allegedly confirmed his client’s suspicions.
In Daisley’s preliminary report, obtained by Guardian Media, he claimed that he found that the siblings’ mother Toolin Bocas was “markedly emaciated”.
“There was a loss of all her body fat and most of her skeletal muscles,” Daisley said, as he noted that the elderly woman would have been bedridden at the time of her death.
“Her immobilisation would have set the stage for her pulmonary embolism and demise,” he said.
However, Justice Seepersad noted that he could not make any findings in relation to the report as he only granted the injunction based on litigation between the two siblings over access to their mother and the family’s home at El Socorro Road in San Juan, which was initiated before her death.
Instead, Justice Seepersad ordered that Daisley’s final report be forwarded to Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher for a criminal investigation to be conducted.
Attorney Varude Badri-Maharaj, who led the legal team for Bocas-Larkin’s sister, welcomed the move as he pointed out that his client was investigated by police based on a previous report from her sister and was cleared of any wrongdoing.
“We have no difficulty concerning that. Let it go forward,” Badri-Maharaj said.
Justice Seepersad also took the decision to strike out Bocas-Larkin’s substantive case against her sister as he advised her lawyers that they had to file a separate lawsuit over how their mother’s estate including the property is to be divided.
As part of his decision in the case, Justice Seepersad ordered Bocas-Larkin to pay a portion of her sister’s legal costs.
In 2020, Bocas-Larkin, a registered nurse who resides in the United States, sued her sister over allegedly denying her access to their mother Toolin, and their family home.
Bocas-Larkin claimed that before their father Ahmid Bocas passed away he executed a will in which he left the property to his wife and his four children.
She claimed that after her father’s funeral, her sister took custody of their elderly mother and the house.
In 2021, High Court Judge Joan Charles granted an injunction granting Bocas-Larkin access to her mother and the property on her periodic trips to Trinidad.
In the court filings, Bocas-Larkin claimed that she was forced to again seek judicial intervention as her sister allegedly sought to take full control of the property after their mother passed away, earlier this month.
Describing the alleged behaviour of Bocas-Larkin’s sister as unconscionable, her lawyers claimed that between 2007 and 2012 their client spent US$10,000 on renovating the house and improving its market value.
In granting the injunction, Justice Seepersad ordered Bocas-Larkin to pay for the autopsy and the costs associated with delaying the funeral, which is now expected to take place today.
Bocas-Larkin was also represented by James Philbert, while Ronald Sammy appeared alongside Badri-Maharaj for her sister.