The horrific death of four-year-old Amarah Lalitte on April 9 shocked the country. Last week, the Guardian Media Investigations Desk took a sample size of 69 high-profile cases over a 33-year period. From that data, we were able to ascertain that more female children were killed than males, that parents and close relatives were often perpetrators and while crime happens all over the country, there was a high percentage of child murders in Chaguanas. Of the 64 cases highlighted by Guardian Media, only 26 have been considered solved, accounting for a detection rate of 41.2 per cent within this sample size. What happens to the families after? Can life go back to normal? What is it like waiting for justice? This week, families reveal their heartbreak.
Senior Investigative Reporter
shaliza.hassanali@guardian.co.tt
Years after dozens of parents lost their innocent children to gun violence or at the hands of brutal and savage killers, they continue to wait for justice.
Many of these murderers continue to walk free, while the cases of those charged are still dragging before the courts. The delay in the justice system has left many families in limbo. The Sunday Guardian spoke to the parents of five children, two of whom were savagely killed almost two decades ago and are still awaiting justice.
Sean Luke’s mom living in misery 18 years after his death
On March 28, 2006, the country was plunged into mourning when the decomposing body of six-year-old Sean Luke was found in a canefield mere metres from his Henry Street, Orange Valley, Couva, home, two days after he went missing.
An autopsy showed Luke died from internal injuries arising from being sodomised with a cane stalk.
Luke’s ghastly killing attracted national and regional attention.
Although Akeel Mitchell and Richard Chatoo were convicted of Luke’s murder in 2021 by Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds, the Court of Appeal in 2022 ordered a new trial for the two men because of the number of serious errors made by the judge who delivered their guilty verdicts.
In Ramsumair-Hinds’ verdict, she said Luke’s killing was a planned and frenzied assault.
Because Mitchell and Chatoo were 13 and 16 at the time of the alleged offence, they could not receive the death penalty.
A minimum sentence of 17 years, six months, and 13 days at the court’s pleasure was imposed on 28-year-old Mitchell, with period reviews every three months.
His next review would have come up on September 13, 2024, if a retrial was not ordered.
Chatoo, 31, received a term of detention of 11 years, six months, and 13 days at the court’s pleasure.
He too was expected to return in three years for a sentence review by a judge.
At their virtual trial, both men denied killing Luke.
Luke’s mother, Pauline Lum Fai, said that 18 years after her son’s horrendous killing, she is still crying out for justice. Once surrounded by friends and family, Lum Fai now lives a lonely life. She is also losing sight in her left eye.
“I was once supported by my family, but everybody has gone their way. It’s a lonely life. I now understand when people say they are getting old and it is a very lonely life for them,” a tearful Lum Fai said during an interview at her home.
At 61, Lum Fai feels everyone has turned their backs on her, including the justice system, as the matter continues to linger.
“Personally, I don’t think there is justice. There is no justice in this country. There wouldn’t be any justice for my son. The case is still up in the air after so many years.”
Lum Fai said every day she cries for Luke who was her pride and joy.
“I miss Seany every day. It feels as if it was still yesterday for me. Time hasn’t healed my wounds. My life is not the same. It will never be the same again. I feel I will go to my grave and never get justice.”
For Lum Fai, who lives alone, there have been more bad days than good.
The minute she opens her front door, Lum Fai sees the location where Luke’s decomposing body was found.
“I don’t have to force myself to think about him. I just have to look down there and all the memories of Seany will flood my mind,” she said, pointing to the abandoned canefield.
Lum Fai said she often imagined the agonising screams Luke would have let out when he was sodomised.
“I am sure he was crying out for his mommy when he took his last breath. I wasn’t even there to help him,” Lum Fai said, as fresh tears rolled down her pale face.
As she awaits the case’s outcome, Lum Fai said her health was slowly sinking.
Lum Fai can only see a shadow in her left eye following an incident a few months ago.
“I was rocking a piece of iron off the ground to take it out, and the iron got away from my hands and hit my left eye,” she recalled. Lum Fai did not seek medical attention.
It was only after her vision became blurred that Lum Fai visited an ophthalmologist, who informed her that there was internal bleeding. She started seeking private medical care but could not pay her bills.
“I can’t see to work anymore. I see dark now. I can’t make out faces. I can’t thread up my sewing machine. I can’t cut pieces of cloth. My life has changed in so many ways.”
Having depended on her sewing skills to survive, Lum Fai said her independence was taken from her.
Clutching a framed photograph of Luke, an emotional Lum Fai said, “Even my vision to see Seany’s photos is going. My life is falling into shambles.”
A grieving Lum Fai now depends on a cousin abroad for financial assistance.
Asking for handouts, she said, was the last thing she wanted to do because she never relied on anyone, including the State, for assistance.
“Since Seany died, nobody has helped me in any form or fashion. I never asked for help because I didn’t want to burden anyone.”
With her back against the wall, Lum Fai recently applied for social welfare.
Admitting that her age is catching up with her, Lum Fai wondered if she would need someone to hold her hand and escort her up the steps of the court when the retrial starts.
“I may not even live to see the conclusion of the retrial. It’s frustrating. It’s hard just dealing with this. The torment has been never-ending.”
Just like her vision, Lum Fai said her faith was fading.
Having done some introspection, Lum Fai said she asked God to forgive her son’s killers and made peace with the Lord.
“I have already come to terms with it. I am not holding anybody in any hate because I know I will see my son one day. To see him, I have to forgive. I could never forget what they did to my son but I have to forgive them. I have learned to get rid of the bitterness and hate.”
Lum Fai said she never imagined that her life would have changed for the worse. “Nobody could feel what I am feeling. I don’t want anybody to live in my shoes.”
15 years later, Tecia Henry’s mom grieves for her daughter and other murdered children
Fifteen years after the brutal killing of her ten-year-old daughter, Dianne Henry could not say if anyone had been charged with the horrendous crime.
The June 17, 2009, murder of Tecia Henry was described as heartbreaking for law enforcement officers and the nation, which prayed for her safe return.
Tecia left her Laventille home to purchase items from a nearby shop. The Standard Five pupil never made it home.
After a manhunt was launched, four days later, Tecia’s tiny body, which was wrapped in plastic, was discovered in a shallow grave beneath a house not far from her home. An autopsy revealed Tecia was strangled.
Henry still grieves for Tecia, who left a deep void in her life.
“All I know, my daughter is dead and gone,” was how Henry responded when asked if Tecia’s killer or killers had been caught and charged.
“To tell you who do it, I can’t say. Watch nah, I really doh know. Look how much years my daughter dead?”
Henry said the murder left her in a state of shock, and she never followed up with the police in their investigation. The police also did not contact her to say if they had made any headway in the case.
“My child can’t come back. People do their evilness, and my daughter gone, and that is it. I just keep seeing evil going on and on and it ain’t stopping.”
Had Tecia been alive, she would have been 25.
“June 25 is her birthday. I can still remember Tecia’s love for modelling and reading. She brought a lot of joy to my life, but that was taken away from me.”
Henry said each time a child was gruesomely murdered it conjured memories of her devastating loss.
The decapitation of four-year-old Amarah Lalittle almost took Henry over the edge.
“You see that four-year-old, that break my heart real bad. Something wrong with the people in this country, boy,” she said, bursting into tears.
Although these children are not her flesh and blood, Henry said, “Ah feeling it for them. They only slaughtering innocent children. The children did not ask to come here.”
Crying uncontrollably, Henry, 59, said many of these children were killed by people they loved and trusted.
“Their parents doing it as well. I ain’t know what getting into people’s minds, boy. I lost for words. These people getting more and more wicked every day.”
Burying her face in her hands to hide her tears, Henry said the murders today have become far more harrowing and frightful, and is now affecting the psyche of our nation.
She said society has also become numb to these killings, and “nothing will change because people going about their business as normal. It’s just a seven-day wonder. Soon Amarah’s murder will die down and when another happens, we will see outrage on social media again. This is like a recurring decimal.”
Henry also criticised the Government for failing to put a handle on crime.
“Right now, they need to do better than that where crime is concerned. They need to step up on their game.”
Darshan Ramnauth’s mom, grandma praying for swift justice
The mother and grandmother of murdered 16-year-old Darshan Ramnauth are praying for swift justice.
As to when that justice will be delivered, that remains to be seen.
Darshan, a Form Five student of St Augustine Secondary School, was gunned down on January 24 last year. The teenager heard gunshots outside his Warner Street, St Augustine, home and ran in the direction of his grandmother’s house nearby to see if she was injured.
But Darshan was chased by the gunmen and killed.
In the hail of gunfire, two other members of the community sustained gunshot wounds, while another person was murdered.
Darshan’s 50-year-old mother, Dhanmatie Ramnauth, and grandmother Savi Mahabir, 69, have called for swift justice following the arrest of the men involved in the shooting.
“All I want is swift justice. This would give me something to hold on to,” Ramnauth said.
Noting that the wheels of justice have been moving at a snail’s pace in the country, Ramnauth wondered if Mahabir (her mother) would live to see her grandson’s killer/s face a trial.
“The longer these things take, it will keep opening up fresh wounds. We know these cases take years to go to trial. So while you are awaiting justice, it’s an injustice for the families to wait so long before a verdict is handed down. This puts a toll on the families of the deceased. It makes you lose hope.”
Ramnauth expressed worry about Mahabir, whose health has been deteriorating since Darshan’s death.
“Since Darshan was born, Ma’s whole life was centred around him.”
Ramnauth said that during her pregnancy with Darshan, her husband suffered a heart attack and died. “So he grew up without a father, and for these men to come and take his life just so is unimaginable.”
Having sacrificed to send Darshan to school and for him to do a straightening and painting trade at the age of 12, Ramnauth is distraught as she said her son was very ambitious.
After graduating, Darshan wanted to open a straightening and painting shop named Royalty’s Auto Customs.
“Darshan was already doing work for people. His customer base was growing. That boy had so much to live for. He was our joy. We kept him on the right path.”
She said all their hopes were pinned on Darshan. “And for these heartless men to kill him like a dog, we can never overcome that. Let me describe it: they didn’t take Darshan; they snatched him from us. They disrupt a whole family’s life with this child.”
Wiping away tears, Mahabir said she often asked God why he didn’t spare Darshan’s life. “Sometimes I does say God could ah do a little miracle and bring Darshan back. Let him walk through the front door.”
When the gunmen started shooting up the street, Mahabir said several bullets pierced the chair she was sitting on.
“God could have shielded that innocent child and take my life instead.”
Darshan grew up in Mahabir’s house. Mahabir had a soft spot for her grandson, who often made her proud.
With Darshan no longer around, Mahabir said, her entire world has been collapsing.
“It’s every day I does be crying. Every day meh belly ripping inside. When he died is like everything died too. Sometimes I feel I wouldn’t make it. I alone does know how I does feel,” Mahabir said.
Ramnauth said Darshan took his last breath opposite their home.
“What makes it harder for us to fight it more is that it happened at home. When you open your door, it is right there he was killed.”
In their quiet moments, Darshan lives in their thoughts.
“When you drop on that bed in the night, and you are by yourself,f that is when the grief does hit you. You want to shout, you want to scream and you don’t know which side to turn to feel comforted.”
Ezekiel Paria’s mother, family remain distraught
The fatal shooting of 12-year-old Ezekiel Paria still has his mother Melissa Huggins in a daze.
Ezekiel was hit in the head by a stray bullet in February, as he stood on the sidewalk of Rudolph Charles Link Road, Laventille community after gunmen opened fire on a car driving through the area.
The gunmen were reportedly targeting a man seated in the vehicle.
Described as a top-performing pupil of Eastern Boys’ Government School, Ezekiel’s murder sparked a peaceful protest against gang violence in the district.
Huggins said she has been trying to cope without her son, but it has been an upward battle for the entire family. She admitted her life has come to a standstill. “Every day is real hard because I does be studying him every day. I doesn’t really like to talk about it too much. I still trying to cope,” she said, her voice dropping as she spoke.
Daily she asks God to give her the courage to fight her battles.
“I have been praying more. Ezekiel gone, but he is still with us not in body but in spirit.”
Huggins said Ezekiel was looking forward to sitting the 2024 Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exam on March 21, but his life was cut short.
“We were going to take him Down the Islands and MovieTowne after the exam. He was so looking forward to this.”
On the day of the SEA exam, Huggins said she cried her eyes out. “I saw everybody’s children for the exam, but my son was not there.”
Ezekiel had set his heart on passing for his first choice school Fatima College.
Just remembering how Ezekiel had mapped out his career path, Huggins said it showed how focused her son was.
“Since Ezekiel was six years old he wanted to be a pilot. He had set his mind on that.”
Of her six children, Huggins said Ezekiel was always the first to help her in the kitchen. He also openly expressed his love for Huggins.
Before heading to work, Huggins said she told Ezekiel that she would give him money for a school field trip. She also warned him to stay indoors because of the war in the community.
In the evening Huggins said she received a call from one of her daughters telling her Ezekiel had been fatally shot.
As she approached the corner where her son lost his life, Huggins said all she saw was a trail of blood and his slippers.
It sunk her heart.
“He always by that corner,” she said, shaking her head from side to side.
That spot, Huggins said, will forever haunt her.
Every time Huggins walks by that corner she pictures her son’s body lying on the ground. “I could just see his body being there.”
Huggins said while she has been trying to be strong for her children they have not been coping well.
“My big daughter, Jerlisa, she does real cry. I had to stop she from crying because her eyes does start to swell.”
Her younger daughter, Faith, has also been suffering in silence.
Huggins said the last she heard a suspect was arrested in connection with Ezekiel murder, but the person was released.
She said if she does not get justice in the court, God will deal with her son’s killer/s. “I leave that to God. God will deal with that matter. All I ask of him is to protect the rest of my children.”
Kylie Meloney’s loved ones in pain, have no faith in justice system
Six-year-old Kylie Meloney had the knack of touching the lives of anyone she came into contact with.
Described as bright, fun-loving, and energetic, Kylie was killed when gunmen stormed the family’s Blake Avenue, Sangre Grande, home on January 8, 2023. One of the bullets ruptured Kylie’s heart.
Tisha Meloney, Kylie’s grandmother fought hard to contain her emotions during a telephone interview recently, stating that she had little hope in our justice system. “Our justice system has failed many families.”
In several trials, Meloney said, the cases had to be thrown out due to insufficient evidence. “Or things going wrong for these fellas to come out. That is the hurtful part.”
Meloney, 43, was celebrating her husband’s birthday when she received a call that Kylie and her mother, Akilah, had been rushed to the hospital after being shot. Akilah is Meloney’s daughter.
When Meloney arrived at the hospital, she was surrounded by nurses and doctors who told her that her only granddaughter did not make it.
“They said they tried to stabilise Kylie five times, but nothing worked. That was the worst news I could have heard.”
To this day, Meloney said she has not come to terms with Kylie’s killing.
“I haven’t accepted this child’s death as yet. I keep feeling she gone on a vacation and would come back just now. It is really, really hard to accept what happened. We don’t know when Kylie was shot if she bawled out in pain. We will never know.”
The police have charged 25-year-old Aaron London, also known as “Gando”, for Kylie’s murder. Meloney said all she was praying for is justice.
She said Kylie often touched the lives of people she came in contact with.
“Anywhere Kylie went, she would light up a room. She always had something positive to say. Her face always had a bright smile.”
Meloney said the killing took a toll on the family. Especially her son, Kimani, who is two months younger than Kylie.
“They attended the same school. They sat in the same class together. They were inseparable. Kylie was Kimani’s rock ... his backbone.”
Unable to cope with the loss, Meloney said counselling had to be given to her son.
“There are times he would still break down”
Last December, Meloney said, Akilah gave birth to a baby girl, her second granddaughter.
“That baby brought so much joy to us. It took away our pain a bit.”