RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Kid­nap vic­tim An­drew Per­sadie is be­lieved to have been stran­gled to death with tie straps af­ter he was ab­duct­ed from his San Fer­nan­do home by two masked men on In­de­pen­dence Day.

The mo­tive for his mur­der re­mains un­clear, but po­lice are now treat­ing the death as a kid­nap­ping homi­cide.

Per­sadie, 42, of Car­nelia Cres­cent, Union Hall, worked as a dri­ver with DH Movers. In­ves­ti­ga­tors said he was leav­ing his home around 5.30 am to go to work when two men wear­ing masks ac­cost­ed him.

They placed tie straps on his hands and forced him to walk in a west­er­ly di­rec­tion. His fam­i­ly quick­ly alert­ed the po­lice as well as the Hunters Search and Res­cue team led by Cap­tain Val­lence Ramb­harat. Im­me­di­ate­ly, a search par­ty, in­clud­ing Ramb­harat’s son Kris­ton, Ron­nie Singh, and Kesraj Sook­nanan, was mo­bilised and be­gan comb­ing the area.

Around 12.15 pm, of­fi­cers from the Ste Madeleine Po­lice, in­clud­ing Sgt Mar­tin and PC Seep­er­sad, re­ceived re­ports that a body had been found near the pond. Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Kris­ton said that when they ar­rived, the po­lice were al­ready on the scene.

“Hunters Search and Res­cue team had been search­ing near the sta­tion in the Pe­tite Morne area since this morn­ing when we re­ceived in­for­ma­tion that a body was found about 333 feet from the edge of the pond,” he said.

Po­lice told Guardian Me­dia that the tie straps were wound tight­ly around Per­sadie’s neck, so he might have been stran­gled.

There were no oth­er marks of vi­o­lence on the body. When his rel­a­tives ar­rived, a woman be­gan wail­ing loud­ly.

“He was go­ing to work when they took him,” she moaned be­fore col­laps­ing on the ground. Oth­er rel­a­tives said they were not ready to talk to the press.

The body was viewed by the Dis­trict Med­ical Of­fi­cer, who or­dered it re­moved to the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre. On Face­book, sev­er­al friends and well-wish­ers of­fered con­do­lences to Per­sadie’s fam­i­ly.

Any­one with in­for­ma­tion on Per­sadie’s death can con­tact Crime Stop­pers at 800-TIPS.