Relatives of kidnap victim Kerry Von Adams wept openly yesterday as they confirmed the body found buried under a pile of grass at the Heights of Guanapo, Arima, was indeed him.
Von Adams, 35, of Old Piarco Road, Red Hill, D’Abadie was last seen alive around 11 pm on July 5, after telling his family he was headed to a bar in Arima.
He was last heard from on July 6, after he called a female relative around 12.45 am and said he urgently needed $15,000 in cash. An unknown man would later direct the woman to drop the money off at a location in Arima, but his family’s hopes that he would return to them alive were dashed when a farmer stumbled upon the buried body in his garden.
The farmer, who acts as a caretaker for the property located off Peter Circular, where Von Adams’ body was found, had been spraying the garden when he saw the victim’s limbs sticking out of the pile of wet grass.
His body bore gunshot wounds to the head and abdomen.
Von Adams’ relative, who dropped off the money, said after receiving the call from him, she called back his phone and a man directed her to only call when she had the money.
The woman said she collected the cash and was directed to toss the envelope out of the car in the vicinity of Gills View and Davis Courts Road, Tumpuna Road, Arima – following which she could collect Von Adams outside the Arima Boys’ RC School.
When he failed to turn up, the woman notified the police. The female relative cried bitterly.
“He not owing anybody, he has no grievances with anybody. He’s a normal person and that’s that.
“They probably just try to steal the vehicle and decide if you don’t have his bank card on him or whatever. They tried what they try and that was it.” She lamented the level of crime in the country.
“We just shocked. We can’t believe it because we didn’t think anybody will target us or target him. We are normal everyday people. I don’t get it. I don’t understand. I really hope they get a grip on the crime situation in the country.
“I feel like in some way or the other, as humans or citizens, we just get a bit desensitised to what we are reading every day, but until it reach to you, that is when you really to get to understand and experience what it is.”
Another female relative chimed in, “We know God will work it out and we want justice for our brother because he was the greatest. He loved us. He was the youngest in the family and the last of five.”
“He was always there for us. He was intelligent and we just want justice.”
Shaken by the hatred and indifference being displayed by human beings today, she said, “We want these people behind bars because they don’t belong around normal citizens. These people are possessed. They’re crazy that they have some sort of trauma that causes them to think that they could just take somebody’s life and dump them.”
The two women urged, “We hope that people will serve God because they never know when is your last day.
“You can’t live normal in Trinidad any more because bad things like this happens. They seeing normal people...we have nothing. We are a normal, thriving family, with educated children, everybody is prospering and we’re normal. We put our trust in God and this happened and we couldn’t help him. It’s traumatising!”
