RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Gib­bons Cok­er’s fi­nal steps through a for­est in Moru­ga were not tak­en for mon­ey, land, or fame, but were out of love for his daugh­ter - Melis­sa. He died try­ing to find her.

Around 3.25 pm on Sat­ur­day, Cok­er was shot in the ab­domen and left to die in a forest­ed area in Moru­ga. He had gone there with a rel­a­tive to search for his 28-year-old daugh­ter, who had not been re­spond­ing to phone calls. Po­lice be­lieve the area was be­ing used to grow mar­i­jua­na.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia at their New­ton Trace, Moru­ga home yes­ter­day, his dis­traught son Kiel Cok­er said the 56-year-old fa­ther was try­ing to help his daugh­ter, who had been fac­ing per­son­al chal­lenges. He said Cok­er had tried to reach out to all his fam­i­ly fol­low­ing the sui­cide of his wife, An­n­marie George, on Feb­ru­ary 14.

“He was re­al stressed how my moth­er passed away. He al­ways used to try to be close to peo­ple, al­ways say­ing he feel­ing lone­ly at home,” Kiel said.

George had re­port­ed­ly in­gest­ed poi­son af­ter bat­tling with health com­pli­ca­tions at age 52. Kiel said the re­la­tion­ship be­tween his moth­er and sis­ter had been strained.

“My sis­ter had prob­lems and my moth­er used to take it on,” he said.

Kiel said his fa­ther had been try­ing to rekin­dle a bond with his daugh­ter in the months af­ter her moth­er’s death.

“He used to tell me, ‘All yuh is my last two chil­dren. I don’t want to see any­thing hap­pen to all yuh,’” Kiel re­called.

On Fri­day, Cok­er re­port­ed­ly be­came wor­ried af­ter learn­ing that his daugh­ter and her friend had a quar­rel.

“He come on work and meet me and tell me that. Then Sat­ur­day morn­ing, he get up and called her phone sev­er­al times but she was not an­swer­ing,” Kiel re­called.

On Sat­ur­day, Cok­er told Kiel he was go­ing to look for his daugh­ter. He went with a rel­a­tive who planned to dig some yam at the same time.

“He say he go­ing in the trace to see if he find her,” Kiel said.

“I went to sleep. Then around min­utes to three, my rel­a­tive come call­ing me, say, ‘Your fa­ther now get shoot in the trace.’ I run down bare­foot through the bush. When I reach, I see him. He done dead.”

He said Cok­er was ly­ing in the bush with a wound un­der his bel­ly.

“I nev­er roll him over. I just shout out his name. When I see him and he not an­swer­ing, I know he done dead. I come out the trace and go straight by the po­lice sta­tion.”

Kiel said his fa­ther had sus­pect­ed some­thing was wrong with the area for some time.

“He used to ask about her where­abouts. He knew peo­ple used to plant weed in that area. But he just want­ed to know where she was when he come home and didn’t see she.”

Asked whether he be­lieved the death was ac­ci­den­tal, Kiel said, “It could be a trap gun, or some­body shoot him. Could be ei­ther.”

He said he has not spo­ken to his sis­ter since the shoot­ing and said he still does not know where she is.

“What go­ing through my mind is a lot. Plen­ty,” Kiel said. “To be hon­est, I don’t have no ques­tions. My mind too far to ask ques­tions. All I want is jus­tice for my fa­ther. That’s all.”

Po­lice said they are search­ing for a man with whom Cok­er had an ar­gu­ment. In­ves­ti­ga­tors have ruled the death as a homi­cide and have list­ed re­venge as a prob­a­ble mo­tive.

Of­fi­cers from the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tion, Re­gion Three are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.