(Trinidad Express) Following the discovery of Andrea Bharatt’s body on Thursday and skeletal remains on Friday a wide search party involving almost 250 police, military and fire personnel combed the Aripo forest yesterday where they found more bones.
These bones will be examined to determine if they were human.
Police said that around 1.50 p.m. a resident of the area who joined the police on the search alerted them about a scattering of bones found at the bottom of a precipice off the Aripo Road near LP 47.
Police later accompanied him down the precipice, secured the bones that appeared human in varying states of decomposition and hauled them up to the main road. They were later taken to the Arima Mortuary and will be moved to the Forensic Science Centre today.
From around 7 a.m. the phalanx of officers supported by a group of hunters met at the Eastern Regional Sporting Complex in an operation called Aripo Sweep spearheaded by DCP Operations Joanne Archie.
The breakdown included 94 Guard and Emergency Branch officers, eight from the Homicide Bureau, six from the AKS, 15 from the Northern Division Task Force, 19 from the Inter Agency Task Force, Five from the Air Support Unit, two officers from the K9 Unit, 17 Fire Officers and 55 soldiers from the Regiment.
The Hunters Association fielded 15 personnel.
The officers, supported by hunters, were divided into groups of nine with each group assigned to cover one kilometre.
With the help of the Search and Rescue Division of the Fire Service, teams of police and soldiers rappelled down the steep precipices off the Aripo Road and jabbed patches of undergrowth with sticks as they searched for remains or bodies. By noon the search was still on-going with the teams of searchers beginning deep within the area, eventually working their way down to where Bharatt’s body was found.
Bharatt, who worked as a clerk in the Arima Magistrates’ Court, disappeared around 5.50 p.m. two Fridays ago when she boarded an “H” car, a Nissan Versa, at King Street, Arima, with a co-worker.
Police said Bharatt’s friend was dropped off near her home at Cleaver Heights, Arima, but up to 7.30 p.m. when Bharatt did not arrive home her father, Randolph Bharatt, called her cellphone.
A man answered and when her father demanded to speak to his daughter, the man replied, “This is about money. If you don’t pay the ransom I will cut off your daughter’s ears and send it to you.”
Following the discovery of Andrea Bharatt’s body on Thursday and skeletal remains on Friday a wide search party involving almost 250 police, military and fire personnel combed the Aripo forest yesterday where they found more bones.
These bones will be examined to determine if they were human.
Police said that around 1.50 p.m. a resident of the area who joined the police on the search alerted them about a scattering of bones found at the bottom of a precipice off the Aripo Road near LP 47.