An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

ann-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

An Ari­ma farmer who failed to an­swer his phone on Fri­day night was yes­ter­day found dead in the back­seat of his ve­hi­cle, which had been aban­doned along Bal­isi­er Road, Aripo.

Griev­ing rel­a­tives iden­ti­fied Garvin Pat­ter­son, 46, of Aripo Road, Smith Lands, Waller­field, as one of the last earth an­gels left.

Shocked and still reel­ing from the loss of an­oth­er broth­er less than three weeks ago, Na­tal­ie Pat­ter­son de­scribed Pat­ter­son as a “worka­holic”.

She claimed Pat­ter­son was ded­i­cat­ed to tak­ing care of his an­i­mals, which in­clud­ed ducks, chick­ens, goats and sheep and had nev­er been in con­tention with any­one.

How­ev­er, she ad­mit­ted the on­ly re­cent is­sue was that some peo­ple had blocked Pat­ter­son from us­ing a path through their farm to ac­cess his own, which was lo­cat­ed at the back of theirs.

De­spite this, she in­sist­ed, “We have no ar­gu­ments with any­body.”

Na­tal­ie last spoke to Pat­ter­son around 11 am on Fri­day, when he came to drop off her son in Ari­ma and brought a chick­en for her to cook.

Con­cerned when she re­turned from work around 7 am yes­ter­day, and was told that ef­forts by sev­er­al peo­ple to reach Pat­ter­son through­out Fri­day night had proven fu­tile, Na­tal­ie said she sent her son, who was as much a son to Pat­ter­son, to help search for him.

At a loss for words as she strug­gled to ac­cept the loss, she was un­able to say what would hap­pen to Pat­ter­son’s an­i­mal farm now.

To the killer(s), she whis­pered, “I can’t say ... they don’t know what they do. Trinidad reach to a state where they lit­er­al­ly turn­ing in­no­cent peo­ple, be­cause trust and be­lieve, they re­al­ly don’t know what they did. They took the last bit of hu­man­i­ty in me. I cyar feel sor­ry for hu­man be­ings again.”

A close male friend said Pat­ter­son was a friend­ly per­son who, “Con­sid­ered every­body as one.” The rel­a­tive de­nied Pat­ter­son was in­volved in a gang. “He nev­er in no gang, he is not no bad man.”

Re­veal­ing Pat­ter­son was as gen­er­ous to his friends as he was to his fam­i­ly, the man added, “He swing by me on Fri­day and drop a duck and a chick­en around mid­day.”

But he too, said it was odd that calls to both of Pat­ter­son’s cell­phones went unan­swered lat­er that night.

“This was out of char­ac­ter for him,” he said.