Grieving relatives of at least 12 people killed over the weekend were turned away from the Forensic Science Centre (FSC), St James, yesterday after being told that no autopsies would be done until tomorrow since none of the two contracted pathologists were available.
While most of the relatives who were given the bad news took it in their stride, one funeral agency, St Rose Funeral Home, was upset by the delay.
Speaking with the T&T Guardian after getting the news, St Rose Funeral Home director Nicholas St Rose said such delays should not be happening in an oil rich country.
"We need to treat the bereaved with more respect. What about the Muslims who want to bury today, they can't now? Spiritually that's not right and the system not right.
"The powers that be need to do something. Let somebody come in and do something. It is embarrassing. On top of that no reason was given why all the post-mortems were put off until Wednesday, that wrong man," he said.
One such affected member of the Muslim faith was Danny "Fats" Siewnarine, whose wife Ashanti Debidin was chopped to death on Saturday at their Princes Town home.
Siewnarine told the T&T Guardian he was told the autopsy would be done on Wednesday and was disgusted by this.
As a practicing Muslim, he said the Sanat al-Janazah (Muslim funeral last rites) is supposed to take place as soon as possible and the delay in the autopsy was preventing that.
An agent of the Shyam Funeral Home, which mostly conducts Muslim funerals, said if the bodies were of accident victims they could have organised to transfer them to a hospital and have a mortician there conduct them, rather than waiting a further two days but because they were the bodies of murder victims nothing could be done.
Other funeral homes questioned whether there was sufficient room for the bodies piling up at the facility yesterday.
By noon there were 12 bodies, two decomposing, at the centre awaiting post-mortems while three more were said to be on the way.
The FSC has been understaffed since the contract of forensic pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov expired in January.
Minister upset
In an interview last month, Alexandrov told the T&T Guardian that he was told that the delay in hiring another pathologist to perform autopsies was adversely affecting the other two pathologists – Dr Hughvon des Vignes and Dr Eastlyn Mc Donald-Burris – who now work every other week.
Dr Mc Donald-Burris, the T&T Guardian was told, has been the only pathologist assigned to the FSC for the past month as Dr Des Vignes was on a month-long vacation.
Questioned about the lack of pathologists at the FSC yesterday, line minister Justice Minister Prakash Ramadhar said he was not sure what was the reason behind the two-day delay in conducting autopsies.
He said, however, that the instructions had been given to find a replacement pathologist in the wake of Alexandrov's departure.
"I know they have gone through the process and we have to respect the process and it has to be sorted out," Ramadhar said, adding the re-hiring of Alexandrov has been agitating his mind for some time as the selection of a pathologist, Alexandrov or otherwise, should have been completed by now.