Be­tween 2010 and 2019, 8,383 peo­ple went miss­ing. Out of that num­ber, 408 peo­ple were still not found at the end of 2019, sta­tis­tics from the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice show. For the last year, scores of oth­er peo­ple were re­port­ed miss­ing, among them sev­er­al young women, a few of whom have since been lo­cat­ed and re­turned home. Oth­ers re­main un­ac­count­ed for.

Sun­day Guardian re­ceived a list with the names of 112 peo­ple who were miss­ing from Miss­ing Per­sons T&T group on Face­book up to Sep­tem­ber 2020. How­ev­er, they in­di­cat­ed that “The ac­tu­al num­ber of un­ac­count­ed peo­ple ac­cord­ing to our count is ten times this num­ber be­cause these are the posts we made in the last year on­ly."

This could take the num­ber of miss­ing peo­ple to more than 1,000, not count­ing those who have dis­ap­peared in the last five months.

Hun­dreds of peo­ple have gone miss­ing for decades, some for a few years, oth­ers for mere months or just days, leav­ing fam­i­ly and friends trau­ma­tised. Re­gard­less of how long they have been gone, it is nerve-wrack­ing for loved ones as the an­guish and pain have be­come un­bear­able as time pass­es by and they are of­fered no hope.

Marc Prescott was six years when he van­ished from out­side the San Fer­nan­do Boys’ Ro­man Catholic Pri­ma­ry School at Har­ris Prom­e­nade on May 14, 2003.

Ten-year-old Vi­jay Per­sad was ab­duct­ed in Moru­ga on June 21, 2004, and was nev­er seen or heard from again.

Denise Bar­cant, 46, left her St Ann's home in her car and dis­ap­peared on Oc­to­ber 24, 2008.

Denesh Soodeen

Kel­ly-Ann Seer­at­tan, 25, from Princes Town, van­ished with­out a trace on No­vem­ber 3, 2011, with all her per­son­al ef­fects left be­hind in her house.

There are peo­ple like Juli­et Tam who dis­ap­peared in De­cem­ber 1985, some 35 years ago, to more re­cent cas­es like Shadiza Nag­amootoo, of Las Lo­mas, who went miss­ing just be­fore Valen­tine’s Day.

These are just a few among the hun­dreds of peo­ple who have gone miss­ing with­out a trace in T&T.

But, how can peo­ple go miss­ing or dis­ap­pear with­out leav­ing any clues on an is­land that is on­ly 1,841 square miles? There are many the­o­ries–some might have been kid­napped, robbed or raped and then mur­dered, oth­ers might have been vic­tims of hu­man traf­fick­ing, yet some oth­ers just want­ed to es­cape for var­i­ous rea­sons.

Un­for­tu­nate­ly, it is not a re­cent phe­nom­e­non and af­fects all races, ages and gen­der. How­ev­er, more women than men go miss­ing.

News re­ports of Ashan­ti Ri­ley, 15, of San Juan, who went miss­ing on No­vem­ber 29, 2020 and was found mur­dered five days lat­er in San­ta Cruz on De­cem­ber 4, and An­drea Bharatt, 23, from Ari­ma, who was kid­napped on Jan­u­ary 29 and miss­ing un­til her bad­ly de­com­posed body was found down a precipice in the Heights of Aripo on Feb­ru­ary 4, trig­gered loved ones of peo­ple who have gone miss­ing to plead with the au­thor­i­ties to not give up on find­ing them.

Com­ing on the heels of the killing of Ashan­ti two months lat­er, Bharatt's mur­der struck a chord in the na­tion's col­lec­tive psy­che and has af­fect­ed cit­i­zens to their core. Her death has trig­gered an emo­tion­al re­sponse in peo­ple run­ning the gamut from fear, grief, hope­less­ness to out­rage on a vis­cer­al lev­el.

Ashan­ti and Bharatt's mur­der sparked a na­tion­al out­cry; large crowds of peo­ple gath­ered across the coun­try and al­so Trinida­di­ans in the di­as­po­ra to hold vig­ils in a show of sol­i­dar­i­ty and to de­mand jus­tice.

It has set off a tor­rent of emo­tions and feel­ings fam­i­ly and friends of the miss­ing con­tin­ue to go through up to to­day, bring­ing to the fore the trau­ma they are forced to re­live as some re­main cold cas­es even af­ter decades in some in­stances.

There is no clo­sure for many of these peo­ple; with no bod­ies, they don't know if their loved ones are dead or alive, but they re­main ever hope­ful that they will re­turn to them.

Shrines for their miss­ing rel­a­tives go up in their rooms, while some fam­i­ly mem­bers can­not even look at pho­tographs of their loved ones, as to do so caus­es more an­guish. Oth­ers suf­fer from ill-health and even­tu­al­ly suc­cumb due to the psy­cho­log­i­cal and phys­i­o­log­i­cal pain and tor­ment.

Stephanie Tam, the sis­ter of Juli­et Tam, then 24, who left her Ari­ma home and van­ished with­out a trace on De­cem­ber 5, 1985, took to so­cial me­dia on Mon­day and shared that Juli­et would have cel­e­brat­ed her 60th birth­day on Feb­ru­ary 15.

"She was kid­napped on Thurs­day 5th De­cem­ber 1985 just af­ter 7 pm on her way to keep-fit class­es with­in five blocks away of her home in Ari­ma. We have heard noth­ing since. The last two weeks have brought back so many mem­o­ries and emo­tions that I have man­aged to con­trol over the years...feel­ings of anger and fear and res­ig­na­tion. I can on­ly say...But GOD. We live not as those with­out hope,” the younger Tam wrote.

Fam­i­lies are seek­ing both clo­sure and jus­tice.

Fam­i­lies speak out

Sev­er­al peo­ple who have miss­ing fam­i­ly mem­bers spoke to the Sun­day Guardian about their trau­mat­ic ex­pe­ri­ences and the new feel­ings of pain that have been evoked since the coun­try’s up­roar over Bharatt's case.

Sharday Emmanuel

COURTESY FB

Shar­day Em­manuel

Shar­day Em­manuel, daugh­ter of John Em­manuel, who lives in Mamoral, went miss­ing in June 2018 and has nev­er been seen since.

Two weeks ago, he went to Bharatt’s fu­ner­al which brought back painful mem­o­ries of his own sit­u­a­tion. Bharatt, who was young, ed­u­cat­ed and full of life, re­mind­ed him of his own daugh­ter. Shar­day, a nurs­ing as­sis­tant, was 20 when she went miss­ing, just three years younger than Bharatt.

“I was there at An­drea’s fu­ner­al. I stood up out­side of the gate of the church and when the cer­e­mo­ny was over and I saw the hearse com­ing out that gate, then I start­ed to cry. Peo­ple start­ed to con­sole me. I told my­self once they find her body, we will have that day too.”

His daugh­ter was sup­posed to have gone shop­ping on that fate­ful day in 2018. Based on in­for­ma­tion he re­ceived af­ter, she was hav­ing prob­lem in a re­la­tion­ship. Em­manuel now sus­pects that she was go­ing to break off the re­la­tion­ship.

A year af­ter the in­ci­dent, there were news re­ports of burnt skele­tal re­mains in the San­ta Flo­ra area which he be­lieves is the body of his daugh­ter. He said that they are wait­ing on the DNA test­ing which will take them to the next stage of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

He re­mains hope­ful that once they get the DNA ev­i­dence, there will be jus­tice.

“The dis­ap­pear­ance hap­pened just be­fore Gary Grif­fith took of­fice and the po­lice then was not as co­or­di­nat­ed as they are now,” he said.

The sit­u­a­tion has changed his life per­ma­nent­ly. Em­manuel said he be­came more with­drawn and speaks less to fam­i­ly and friends. He has al­so be­come more para­noid and does not trust peo­ple as he used to.

For two years af­ter the in­ci­dent, his daugh­ter’s room stayed al­most the same. How­ev­er, last year he did some ren­o­va­tions to this house and some things had to be moved out of her room.

“I kept a can­dle next to a pic­ture of her. Her mem­o­ry will al­ways re­main,” he said.

Abigail Joseph

Abi­gail Joseph

An­ton John, who is now 35 years old and lives in San Juan, re­mem­bers the in­ci­dent as if it were yes­ter­day.

As he re­calls the sto­ry...It was Sep­tem­ber 2, 2008.

His sis­ter, Abi­gail Joseph, 29 at that time, was sup­posed to have picked up her child af­ter school but nev­er showed up.

Around 5.30 that evening they re­ceived a fran­tic call say­ing that Joseph did not pick up her son at school. John then called her close friend Nathalie to find out if she was with her.

They then went to the Bel­mont Po­lice Sta­tion to re­port the sit­u­a­tion and were told that 24 hours would have to pass be­fore she is con­sid­ered miss­ing.

In an in­ter­view with the Sun­day Guardian, he blames the po­lice ser­vice for not mov­ing faster on the tip-offs that they re­ceived at that time. He said based on what he has seen since the po­lice ser­vice has im­proved in how it deals with these cas­es and now op­er­ate more ef­fi­cient­ly.

He be­lieves she was the vic­tim of hu­man traf­fick­ing. He de­scribed his sis­ter as be­ing con­ser­v­a­tive, qui­et, and fam­i­ly-ori­ent­ed and be­lieves that hu­man traf­fick­ers are look­ing for these types of fe­males to pounce up­on and take ad­van­tage of.

That in­ci­dent changed his life for­ev­er. John, who has three sis­ters, said he has be­come less trust­ing of oth­er peo­ple and he has tak­en more in­ter­est in the safe­ty of fe­males.

13 years lat­er, he still holds hope that he will see his miss­ing sis­ter again.

He said see­ing Bharatt’s case all over the news and so­cial me­dia has brought back a lot of painful mem­o­ries of his old­er sis­ter.

He called on cit­i­zens to look out for each oth­er and to act re­spon­si­bly.

Coreen Singh

Coreen Singh

Caren Robin­son, who now re­sides in New York, is still in deep pain af­ter the dis­ap­pear­ance of her sis­ter Coreen Singh who was 25 years at that time.

On Feb­ru­ary 3, 2018, Singh, who is from Cara­po, left her home to go out and was nev­er seen again.

A few days af­ter, her car was found burnt in Ca­roni but her body was nev­er found.

She ac­knowl­edged the as­sis­tance her fam­i­ly got from crime show host Ian Al­leyne, who pub­li­cised the case.

How­ev­er, she was crit­i­cal of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice since she felt they could have done more to find her sis­ter.

Three years lat­er, she still hopes that her sis­ter is alive and said that Bharatt's case brought back a lot of pain for her.

As soon as T&T’s bor­ders are open she in­tends to vis­it T&T for the first time in 15 years and she will con­tin­ue look­ing for her sis­ter, whether she is dead or alive.

Robin­son said her life has been changed for­ev­er.

“My life could nev­er be the same, I lost my ba­by sis­ter, the sweet­est most giv­ing, car­ing, self­less per­son I know. We were re­al­ly close. I miss her so much and in the process, I lost my mom and dad. I lost all three of them and it was all be­cause of these mon­sters that are walk­ing the streets, those dev­ils. I don't know how they sleep at night or move on with their life af­ter they did what they did. God is in con­trol and no mat­ter how long it takes we will get jus­tice for my ba­by sis­ter. I leave it all in his hands.”

Kirby Mohammed

Kir­by Mo­hammed

Mas de­sign­er and San Fer­nan­do busi­ness­man Kir­by Mo­hammed went miss­ing six years ago on Feb­ru­ary 28, 2015.

His moth­er, Lin­da Mo­hammed, told the Sun­day Guardian that she wants clues as to what hap­pened to her son.

She be­lieves he was kid­napped and robbed. How­ev­er, she is not sure that he is still alive as his body has nev­er been found.

She wants po­lice to use more foren­sic sci­en­tif­ic ap­proach­es in crime fight­ing.

Mo­hammed said she knows she was not the on­ly one as many oth­ers have lost loved ones and are in the same sit­u­a­tion as her.

She called on mem­bers of the pub­lic who might have in­for­ma­tion about his where­abouts to con­tact the near­est po­lice sta­tion or Crime Stop­pers at 800-TIPS or 482-GARY.

De­nesh Sood­een

Jan­u­ary 20, 2021, made it 12 years since De­nesh Sood­een went miss­ing.

Jan­u­ary 22, 2021, would al­so have been his 40th birth­day, which his fam­i­ly should have been cel­e­brat­ing with him. In­stead, it just marks an­oth­er year of pain, sad­ness, and unan­swered ques­tions.

Sher­e­na Fair­ley said her old­er broth­er has been miss­ing for years and they have no an­swers, no clues, no idea as to what took place or what is tak­ing place with him and his case.

Miss­ing Per­sons in T&T Face­book page quot­ed her as say­ing: “I know it’s a long time but it’s worth a try. Hope­ful­ly, with the emo­tion­al state, Trinidad is in at this mo­ment some­one, any­one who may have in­fo might speak up! We just need some truth­ful clo­sure! Please?”

Sood­een lived with his fam­i­ly in Chatham, in the deep South, and worked at Petrotrin. He al­so had a busi­ness sell­ing jew­el­ry and was in­to cars when he was not at his day­time job.

He left home to go to Gulf City and he was nev­er seen again.

The po­lice found his car parked in Gulf City but there were no traces of him.

De­spite dif­fer­ent the­o­ries, Fair­ley said that there have nev­er been any strong leads as to what hap­pened to her broth­er.

She said the in­ci­dent changed her life for­ev­er as she is no longer trust­ing. It al­so opened her eyes to the dan­ger­ous world that ex­ists where peo­ple are not safe and they could sim­ply dis­ap­pear one day.

She al­so said that for many years his room in the fam­i­ly’s house in Chatham was left un­touched. Since then they have packed away his clothes and per­son­al be­long­ings but it re­mains un­oc­cu­pied.

“Of course, we al­ways would want clo­sure. As long as we don’t find ac­tu­al re­mains of him, there is hope that we might see him alive and well and it would be one hell of a sto­ry to hear. But as the years go by the hope kinds of dims.”

Boodram Bas­deo

Emi­ly Bas­deo-Al­i­john’s 56-year-old un­cle, Boodram Bas­deo went to change a cheque that he re­ceived dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic in Ju­ly 2020 and was nev­er seen again.

Up to the time he was last seen, he lived in Union Vil­lage, Ma­yaro.

She said he was an em­ploy­ee on a cit­rus es­tate in Union Vil­lage and his boss dropped him off to change the cheque. Ac­cord­ing to her, that was the last time he was ever seen.

Months lat­er, she is still in pain and is hope­ful that her un­cle will turn up alive.

“His boss­man took him to change a COVID-19 grant and he nev­er came back home...It was a friend who in­formed us that he was miss­ing. My un­cle wasn’t sick or any­thing like that.”

She said that the po­lice do not have ev­i­dence to ar­rest any­one or any leads.

Bas­deo-Al­i­john still grieves for him.

“He was my fa­ther’s broth­er and he was my on­ly fam­i­ly on my fa­ther's side to live here in Union Vil­lage. Every now and again peo­ple claim to see him and we act on the in­for­ma­tion but al­ways there’s no suc­cess in find­ing him. We’re just like head­less chick­ens.”

A few months af­ter he went miss­ing, she gave birth to a ba­by girl and is sad­dened that he is not around to see her new­born ba­by.

“Some­times, my mind runs on him and I just start to cry. My un­cle was look­ing for­ward to my ba­by be­ing born. Sad­ly, he’s not here with us.”

Shanice Cooper

COURTESY FB

Shan­ice Coop­er

In Oc­to­ber 2020, the Sun­day Guardian re­port­ed the heart­break­ing sto­ry of Shan­ice Coop­er who went miss­ing at sev­en months preg­nant.

The 30-year-old port work­er was last seen leav­ing her moth­er's Bel­mont home on Au­gust 28, 2019.

Af­ter go­ing months with­out hear­ing from in­ves­ti­ga­tors, Shan­ice's aunt, Pauline, was con­tact­ed by of­fi­cers of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice short­ly af­ter the sto­ry was pub­lished.

Up­on the in­ves­ti­ga­tor's re­quest, Pauline and Shan­ice's moth­er had a two-hour-long meet­ing about the case.

Ac­cord­ing to Pauline, the meet­ing gave them a much-need­ed sense of hope and en­cour­age­ment. 

Three weeks lat­er though, crit­i­cal in­for­ma­tion shared in the meet­ing was re­cant­ed.

The im­pact of all this, she said, on­ly served to re­open wounds in Shan­ice's moth­er.  

"To come three weeks to a month lat­er and take back all of that, it threw her right back again. These peo­ple don't un­der­stand what they are do­ing to fam­i­lies," Coop­er said.

"The in­for­ma­tion was ba­si­cal­ly root­ed away from us, so it's like, this is what I told you'll, this is not what it is, very con­flict­ing," Shan­ice's aunt lament­ed.  

The in­ves­ti­gat­ing of­fi­cer was sub­se­quent­ly moved from the case.

Now, just as she felt in the days, weeks, and months af­ter Shan­ice's dis­ap­pear­ance, Pauline is dis­ap­point­ed by the po­lice's re­sponse.

"I pre­fer they con­tin­ue say­ing there's no lead, rather than to build your hope and then smash it be­cause that is what they did," she said.

Any­one with in­for­ma­tion can con­tact/call 999 or any po­lice sta­tion or re­port anony­mous­ly at 800-TIPS or 555 or text 482-GARY or use the TTPS mo­bile app.

Why girls leave home and are found lat­er?

Girls and young women who have dis­ap­peared from home but are not kid­napped have been ac­cused of wast­ing po­lice time.

But, civil­ian man­ag­er, Gen­der-based Vi­o­lence Unit, T&T Po­lice Ser­vice Shireen Pol­lard does not be­lieve that when girls run away from their homes, they should be blamed.

"When they go miss­ing it is with men that are much old­er than them. Are these girls re­al­ly go­ing con­sen­su­al­ly? Or are they vic­tims? These girls are be­ing sex­u­al­ly groomed by old­er men. These teenage girls are not go­ing miss­ing with boys their ages as they don’t have a car, they don’t have mon­ey. It is old­er men prey­ing on younger girls,” Pol­lard said.

She said there are al­so fac­tors in the homes that are dri­ving young girls to leave, even if it is tem­porar­i­ly.

"You may have had par­ents who are suf­fer­ing from sub­stance abuse. There may be do­mes­tic vi­o­lence in the home. I al­so think that there is a lack of knowl­edge and ca­pa­bil­i­ty to deal with teenage daugh­ters. While there are par­ents who go to par­ent­ing work­shops, there are oth­er par­ents who re­al­ly don’t know what to do with their teenagers when they act out. There must be more train­ing for par­ents to un­der­stand how to treat their chil­dren at their de­vel­op­men­tal stage. If no one taught the par­ents to do that then there will be con­flict in the home."

These sit­u­a­tions then lead an old­er man to ap­proach a teenage girl and lure her away from home, she added.

"We al­so need to ed­u­cate young girls on what is sex­u­al groom­ing for them to un­der­stand what they’re get­ting in­to. If a child goes miss­ing or the child goes with some­one the par­ents doesn’t know, they should re­port it as soon as they could."