(Trinidad Express) With their hands bound with tie-straps and shivering with fear, a mother and daughter who were kidnapped from their Maraval home ran into the arms of Morvant residents on Friday night, pleading for help.
Also barefooted, 45-year-old Petrina Hernandez, who is employed at a company in Woodbrook, and her daughter, Amelia Roberts, 19, were dropped off by their abductors at the top of a hill leading to a TSTT satellite along the Lady Young Road, near the lookout.
The mother and daughter told residents they had been taken from their home since Thursday evening by several men who blindfolded and tied them up before forcing them out of their home in Simpson Drive, Andalucia, Maraval.
They were then taken to an unknown location where they were kept until the abductors decided to set them free.
The Sunday Express yesterday spoke with Morvant resident Roxanne Smith Alexander, the owner of a shop located at the base of the hill where the women were dropped off and who, along with others, assisted them by contacting police.
“I did not see what direction they came from but my husband and some friends, were liming outside and the two ladies ran bawling, ‘Help, help, help’. Everybody assisted to help and to find out where they came from because they were tied up with tie-straps but they were cut (afterward).
“Their feet also had tie-straps, but they were also cut. My husband and the guys tried to get police to stop, but they (they officers) went up the road, turn and came back and we were telling them what happened,” said Smith-Alexander.
“They came begging for help so we had to help them. That is our responsibility to each other. When you see someone in distress, you have to help them out and that is what we did,” she added.
She said it was sometime around 8 p.m. that the women ran in the direction of her shop asking for assistance.
“The daughter was just shaking, shaking, shaking, and the mother was holding on to her daughter. They said it was since Thursday some guys came to their place in Maraval, abducted them, blindfolded them, tied them up, but they don’t know where they went or where they were.
“The guys who were here said it was a grey station wagon that came down the hill and sped off, but I do not know because I did not see,” said Smith-Alexander.
She said after officers stopped by her shop, the lawmen said they were going to take the women to a medical institution to be examined.
“I hope everything is alright with both of them because we do not know what happened after they left with the police. We are worried and just want to make sure that everything is okay with the two ladies. We told the ladies that they were safe, they were in a safe area and we would take care of them and that is what we did,” she said.
Smith-Alexander said this was not the first time such an incident had taken place in the area with similar circumstances.
She explained that around 2001, a Venezuelan girl was dropped off at the top of the hill by a “taxi-driver” after she asked to be taken to San Juan.
“When the girl ran down the hill, she had bruises on her face and she had a cut on her head. Then around 2015, another incident just like this took place, and again, we here had to call police,” she said.
Smith-Alexander said she was calling for more frequent police patrols along the Lady Young Road, and particularly along the hill leading to the satellite dish.
“There was a time when kidnapping seemed as though it was coming to an end, but it looks as though it is starting again,” she said.
Earlier in the day, the Sunday Express visited the home of the mother and daughter, but no one would say anything about the abduction.
A number of people were seen sitting towards the front of the home.
As the Sunday Express called out to those present, a police officer in civilian clothing approached.
The officer said neither he nor any of the victims’ relatives could provide any information to the media at this time.
A close friend of the family who spoke with the Sunday Express via telephone provided some details as to how the events unfolded.
Requesting strict anonymity, the man denied previous reports that the mother and daughter were discovered missing around 4 a.m. on Friday.
He explained that Hernandez was employed at a business place in Woodbrook and was always punctual.
She almost never missed a day on the job, he said.
So when Hernandez did not show up for work on Friday morning, her co-workers became concerned.
“They called her phone and there was no answer. They then called Amelia’s phone, and she also did not answer and did not show up work either. So that was when (the company where Hernandez worked) sent armed security officers to the house. The security got there around 9 a.m. and that was when they noticed that the house was broken into and ransacked,” he said.
The man said it appeared that the kidnappers used a blowtorch to cut through the burglar-proofing. They then broke the wooden doors to enter the home
“So it was not at 4 a.m. that anyone realised they were missing,” he said.
He went on to explain that on Friday afternoon, the three cars that were taken from the family’s home—a Hyundai Tucson, a silver-coloured Toyota Yaris and a black Nissan Cefiro—were later found abandoned near a basketball court in St Barbs, Laventille.
“Another thing is that no ransom was paid for their release,” he said.
The man said he suspected the two had been released, given the type of attention the case was receiving in the media.
“So maybe they (the kidnappers) believed that police were closing in on them so they decided to let them go,” he said.
The two, after being rescued, were taken to the St Clair Medical Centre where they underwent medical examinations until around 11 p.m.
Currently, they are both staying at the home of another relative in an undisclosed location, he said.
Asked if either of the two were harmed in anyway, the man said they were not.
“Even though they were not harmed, both of them are obviously traumatised by what happened. They are staying by a relative at this time because they cannot move back into the same house just yet,” he said
Hernandez’s husband, up to yesterday evening, was in Boston in the United States. Having received news of the abductions, he is expected to return to Trinidad and Tobago within the next couple of days, the family friend said.
Police said in a statement last night that the incident is still engaging their attention as “investigations into the matter are being conducted by the Anti-Kidnapping Unit and officers of the Western Division”.
Anyone with information that could lead to the arrest of the perpetrators of this crime can call 999, 555, 911, or call 800-TIPS or any police station.
