Derek Achong

In a sce­nario rem­i­nis­cent of the Shake­speare­an tragedy Romeo and Juli­et, two teenagers were found poi­soned on Thurs­day in what po­lice have de­scribed as a planned dou­ble-sui­cide at­tempt. Ac­cord­ing to po­lice re­ports, around 3.15 pm, the two, both 17, were found un­con­scious in a room at the boy's Hug­gins Street, Tacarigua, home.

The boy's grand­moth­er said she heard a scream from his bed­room. When she checked she found the cou­ple ly­ing on the floor me­tres from each oth­er. Both were froth­ing from the mouth and one of the boy's wrists was slit. Both were stu­dents of a sec­ondary school in east Trinidad and had at­tend­ed school ear­li­er on Thurs­day.

Po­lice were con­tact­ed and the cou­ple tak­en to hos­pi­tal where the girl was pro­nounced dead on ar­rival. Po­lice said an un­la­belled bot­tle of a poi­so­nous liq­uid was found near the cou­ple and was tak­en to the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre in St James for tests. An au­top­sy will be done on her body at the cen­tre on Mon­day morn­ing.

The girl's boyfriend, who can­not be named be­cause of his age, re­mained ward­ed in a crit­i­cal con­di­tion at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex at Mt Hope up to late yes­ter­day. He was be­ing close­ly mon­i­tored by doc­tors and po­lice. Po­lice were un­able to in­ter­view the teenag­er, who was said to be heav­i­ly se­dat­ed.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said the teens did not leave a sui­cide note but are work­ing on the the­o­ry that their sui­cide bid was prompt­ed by their par­ents' dis­ap­proval of their re­la­tion­ship. Supt Baldeo Nanan, In­sp Wayne Lawrence and PC Naipaul of the Re­gion Two Homi­cide Bu­reau are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.