(Trinidad Guardian) Forty-five women and two girls have been murdered so far. With the murder count presently at 362, females represent 13 per cent of the homicides to date.
And while these women fell victim to cold-blooded killers, jealous lovers and men with twisted sexual fantasies, hundreds of other women remain the victims of abusive relationships, some even in the confines of their own homes.
The T&T Police Service (TTPS) said of the 745 people reported missing for 2020 a staggering 416 of those are women and girls—which is more than half of the missing persons figure. The police said there was no confirmation as to how many of that number remain missing.
The discovery on Friday of the body of 18-year-old Ashanti Riley, who left her San Juan home last Sunday to attend her grandmother’s birthday party in Cocorite has incensed and enraged most of the population.
Ashanti’s nude, decomposing body was dumped by her killers in a shallow stream in La Canoa, Santa Cruz. Two men, including a 32-year-old taxi driver, are currently in police custody for her murder, while they continue to hunt a third suspect.
Ashanti was picked up in a blue Nissan Almera outside of her Sunshine Avenue, San Juan home last Sunday. CCTV footage showed the teen getting into the car, which later stopped and picked up two other men in San Juan.
The driver of the car was detained by police on Monday and after four days in custody broke his silence- providing police with information about where Ashanti’s body had been dumped.
During the five days that Ashanti was missing, social media users shared her photos tirelessly and urged anyone with information on her whereabouts to come forward or notify the police. As photos of a smiling Ashanti flooded social media on Friday, many citizens expressed hurt and anguish over her murder.
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said he was pained by Ashanti’s murder. He said it was unfortunate that such evil continued to be produced right here in T&T.
Rowley, a father of two daughters, said, “I too am exposed to that.”
Recalling Mano Benjamin who was referred to as the Beast of Biche back in the 1960s, Rowley said it was a similar tale.
Benjamin was an outsider whom Biche children called the green-faced man but to the rest of the country, he was known as the Beast of Biche. He became infamous after it was discovered that he had held two sisters, Lucieann and Dulcie Ramirez, captive inside a house at the Biche quarry where he raped, tortured and abused them in the 1960s. He served 20 years in prison for his crimes. One of the sisters was blinded with acid while the other was sexually mutilated. Both women have since died.
Rowley said, “There is something happening and I mentioned it to the Minister of National Security and the population is going to have to deal with this matter somewhere along the line.”
The prime minister said, “There was a time in this country when you could not operate a motor vehicle for hire unless you were cleared by the State to be a person of good character and your vehicle was so marked…”
He said, “every Tom, Dick and Harry is now being granted a licence to operate a vehicle and pick up people—this is the possibility one faced.
“There are in T&T today, a large number of people operating motor vehicles, unknown to the State’s registry because there is no real registry since we disbanded the system of you coming to licence your vehicle every year.
“I am coming to the conclusion that the State does not have a good handle on who is operating motor vehicles in this country and among those people…many of them are people who should have nothing to do with picking up people in that motor vehicle because their character is not a recommendation to the rest of the population.”
The PM said the question now was what should be done about it.
Reinforcing that personal safety was something everyone had to pay attention to at all times and take steps to preserve, Rowley said by equipping people with pepper spray and tasers to protect themselves, it might be a situation where it could be used against the victim as well.
He said, unfortunately, there was evil in our society and people are diminished whenever such gruesome acts are committed.