Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

The moth­er of the To­ba­go man, who was found be­head­ed in Blan­chisseuse on Thurs­day, said she had begged her son to re­turn home af­ter he left the is­land in search of job op­por­tu­ni­ties in Trinidad.

But weeks be­fore he was ex­pect­ed to move back to the is­land, 19-year-old Ar­man­do Ken­neth of Bethel was found dead around 12.18 pm at Damien’s Bay.

The de­cap­i­tat­ed body had Ar­man­do’s name tat­tooed on the left fore­arm with an­oth­er tat­too “Stay para­noid trust no one” on the right side of the low­er stom­ach.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day morn­ing, De­siree Ken­neth said while she was griev­ing, she had al­ready for­giv­en those re­spon­si­ble for end­ing her son’s life. She said she chose to move for­ward.

“I have to for­give and move on,” she said.

She fur­ther lament­ed she had re­peat­ed­ly urged her son to come back to To­ba­go if he was strug­gling in Trinidad.

She said his fa­ther would ask her if she was wait­ing for him to be killed in Trinidad be­fore do­ing more to get him to re­turn home.

Both par­ents were con­cerned for his safe­ty, con­sid­er­ing the crime sit­u­a­tion in Trinidad.

Ken­neth said, “His fa­ther used to tell me, ‘You go wait un­til they kill your son.’

“He was back and forth. I used to say, ‘Boy, come home, come home. If you can’t make it down there, come home. He used to say, ‘Yes, Mam­my, I go (sic) come home.’”

“He was sup­posed to come home month end here.”

But she said Aman­do was de­ter­mined to find a job in Trinidad.

While she lament­ed the wors­en­ing crime sit­u­a­tion, she said she was hold­ing on­to her faith that God will bring jus­tice and give her strength.

“I have to cope, you know. In Je­sus’ name, I have to cope and stay strong.”

The griev­ing moth­er said the last time she saw her son was on Mon­day. She hugged him and told him to be safe be­fore he left To­ba­go.

“He went down back (to Trinidad) on Mon­day. He said, ‘Mom­my, I’m leav­ing,’ and I told him to be safe. He give me a hug and I didn’t know that would be the last I would see my son. On Tues­day I called him, and he said he reached down to Trinidad safe.”

She de­scribed her on­ly child as a jovial per­son, who loved to dress up. She said his fam­i­ly, close friends and the com­mu­ni­ty were dev­as­tat­ed.

Po­lice said Ar­man­do had re­port­ed that he was robbed to of­fi­cers of the San­ta Cruz Po­lice Sta­tion on Wednes­day af­ter­noon. He was killed hours af­ter the in­ci­dent oc­curred.

His moth­er said she was not aware of the rob­bery and al­le­ga­tions that he may have been in­volved in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties.

De­spite the Ken­neth fam­i­ly com­ing for­ward, po­lice say the de­cap­i­tat­ed body was still be­ing of­fi­cial­ly de­scribed as be­ing a ‘John Doe’ un­til con­clu­sive iden­ti­fi­ca­tion can be made at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, St James, on Mon­day.

Re­gion Two Homi­cide in­ves­ti­ga­tors are con­tin­u­ing en­quiries.