Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

The search for 57-year-old Shelawai­htie “Meera” Be­dasse of Coro­man­del Vil­lage, Ce­dros, came to a trag­ic end to­day af­ter her body was dis­cov­ered hang­ing from a tree near Clifton Hill beach.

Be­dasse, a sales clerk at Bet­ter Deal Va­ri­ety Store in Point Fortin, was re­port­ed miss­ing on Tues­day by her son, PC Rus­sell Be­dasse.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said she left home around 7:30 am and was dropped off at work by her son-in-law. How­ev­er, her em­ploy­er lat­er con­firmed that she left the store around 8:30 a.m. af­ter com­plain­ing of feel­ing un­well.

By evening, calls to her mo­bile phones went unan­swered, and at­tempts to reach her through rel­a­tives and friends proved un­suc­cess­ful. A miss­ing per­son alert was sub­se­quent­ly is­sued by the Point Fortin Po­lice Dis­trict.

This morn­ing, law en­force­ment of­fi­cers con­duct­ing search­es in the Clifton Hill area made the grim dis­cov­ery. In­ves­ti­ga­tors have cor­doned off the scene and are await­ing the re­sults of a post-mortem ex­am­i­na­tion to de­ter­mine the ex­act cause of death.

Po­lice have con­firmed that state­ments are be­ing record­ed and CCTV footage is un­der re­view as part of on­go­ing in­quiries. Foul play has not yet been ruled out.

Be­dasse’s death has left her fam­i­ly, col­leagues, and the Ce­dros com­mu­ni­ty in shock.

Coun­cil­lor Shankar Teelucks­ingh said he knew Be­dasse well as she was his class­mate. He said the fam­i­ly was re­spectable and Be­dasse was al­ways kind and help­ful to oth­ers. He ex­pressed hope that the po­lice will solve the case and bring clo­sure to the fam­i­ly.