(Trinidad Express) – A body believed to be that of missing Tucker Energy Services employee Zephaniah Harripaul was found on Thursday, approximately 200 feet down a precipice off North Coast Road.
When the Express attempted to speak to relatives at the family’s home in Arima, it was said that they had been made aware that a body had been found, but police had yet to confirm the details with them, or if it was indeed Harripaul’s body.
Earlier in the day, the family had begun a second consecration period of praying and fasting for Harripaul’s safe return.
The three-day period began on Wednesday, with the hopes that he would have been found yesterday, as it marked a month since he had gone missing.
Police said that shortly after noon, employees of the Laing Group of Companies were carrying out a survey project on behalf of the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) off North Coast Road.
They said while operating down a 200-foot precipice, a short distance from the Maracas Bay lookout, they found the body of a man. Police believe it may be 33-year-old Harripaul, who was abducted from his Chaguaramas workplace during the early hours of February 17.
Officers of the North Coast Operations Unit, Maracas Bay Police Station and Homicide and Crime Scene Unit went to the area and, up to 8 p.m., they were still trying to lift the body up the precipice.
Officers said the body appeared to have been there for some time, and an immediate identification could not be done.
However, they said “industrial-type” overalls were found near the body, which further heightened their speculation that it could be Harripaul.
Police said that around 2 a.m. on February 17, a group of men drove up and spoke with security at Tucker Energy’s gate, after which they drove onto the compound, where they parked outside the main building.
A Western Division senior officer told the Express a security guard said the men told him they had come to pick up a man working there
Harripaul had been working outside with a crew, but left briefly to retrieve a flashlight from the office.
It was then that he was grabbed by the men, and forced into the waiting vehicle.
One of the men came into the office looking for Harripaul’s keys for his Hyundai Tucson, which he took and left.
But as both vehicles exited the compound, Harripaul’s vehicle alarm kept going off, said his brother, Stephen Harripaul, who explained that if the alarm is not deactivated a particular way, it would keep going off every 30 seconds.
The man driving Harripaul’s vehicle abandoned it at the gate, got into the car he had arrived in, and left.
A guard then contacted Carenage Police Station.