Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

A laden man­go tree stands tall in front a di­lap­i­dat­ed gal­vanised shack perched on a hill along Mataigual Road, San Juan.

A chained dog guards the makeshift door which is se­cured with a pad­lock. From a dis­tance, in the noon­day sun, three pairs of eyes can be seen peep­ing through a win­dow made of BRC wire. Mataigual Road, off Bushe Street, is qui­et, but as the Guardian team makes its way to­ward the shack, the women be­gin mak­ing sounds in ex­cite­ment and the dog be­gins to bark. The T&T Guardian news team vis­it­ed the shack on Wednes­day af­ter re­ceiv­ing sev­er­al re­ports about the trio who were said to be locked up alone for the en­tire day with­out run­ning wa­ter and elec­tric­i­ty. One re­port said a men­tal­ly chal­lenged child was of­ten seen run­ning around in her un­der­wear and would some­times en­ter res­i­dents' homes. The vis­it cre­at­ed a stir in the area, as a hand­ful of neigh­bours trick­led to the bot­tom of the hill look­ing up. The trio re­mained star­ing through the wire fenced-win­dow. They were un­able to com­mu­ni­cate ver­bal­ly but gig­gled and waved. A stench em­anat­ed from in­side the dark shack which had an out­house lean­ing atop it. They looked un­kempt. Res­i­dents, who did not want to be named, were thank­ful for the pres­ence of the news team.

One neigh­bour said the old­er women were twins named Gillian and Kathy-Ann and were "around 28 or 29." The oth­er fe­male, 12-year old Shinelle was said to be an off­spring of one of the women. He said the fam­i­ly had been liv­ing in the area for at least ten years. One res­i­dent de­scribed the sit­u­a­tion as "ter­ri­ble", while an­oth­er lift­ed her hands in the air and said: "Praise God. Some­body reach." A woman, who spoke freely, said: "It is over­bear­ing and I glad some­body go­ing to put this in the pa­pers. That 12-year old child does be in a panty whole day," the woman said. Ac­cord­ing to an­oth­er res­i­dent: "The lit­tle girl get stuck be­tween pieces of gal­vanise last (week) Fri­day and po­lice and am­bu­lance and nurs­es come up."How­ev­er, of­fi­cers at the San Juan Po­lice Sta­tion were not aware of any re­ports. One of­fi­cer said the com­put­er sys­tem was down but ad­vised that a re­port be made to the Com­mu­ni­ty Po­lice.One res­i­dent said they were ac­cus­tomed to the "bawl­ing nois­es," but last week's in­ci­dent was se­ri­ous.

"I al­ways hear­ing them bawl­ing but last week the lit­tle one was in pain. She al­ways get­ting out and runs all over the place. She doesn't un­der­stand any­thing," the res­i­dent added. Oth­er res­i­dents said a close rel­a­tive (name giv­en), a ven­dor, usu­al­ly left the trio locked up all day and re­turned late at night. "She would buy three Chub­bys and take it for them every night," one said. They claimed when­ev­er they bought snacks for the trio, the rel­a­tive would "cuss and get on." One man said: "They could cuss good you know." Asked if they were fed, he said: "I pass and see them eat­ing." He de­scribed the shack as "a va­grant den."

A woman said: "A whole month they wear­ing the same clothes. The peo­ple liv­ing across from them have to close their win­dows be­cause of the smell."

Peo­ple in the area were will­ing to as­sist but the girls' rel­a­tive was a prob­lem, one el­der­ly woman said. She added: "(name called) is ah wicked woman. She love Play Whe and the casi­no. She does come home all hour of the night and they locked up in there."