Senior Investigative Reporter
shaliza.hassanali@guardian.co.tt
Jilted Maureen Villaruel is feeling betrayed by villagers in her Arima community who were part of a devious plan to help her common-law husband, Leon Seemungal, leave her home after he collected a lump sum pension payment in October.
Since Seemungal’s departure, Villaruel has not been able to put the incident behind her, stating she had dearly loved and cared for him after living together for 20 years.
“For a long time them people wanted to destroy we. Just imagine the neighbours know ... none of them would tell me. Them was hiding it from me. The neighbours and them didn’t want me to know nothing. And they still don’t want me to know nothing. They plan their business,” said Villaruel, venting her feelings last Monday.
She was speaking about a “secret plot” by residents to get Seemungal out of her life.
“They always encouraging him to leave my home.”
Their plan, she said, finally worked.
Villaruel’s story was published in last week’s Sunday Guardian headlined “Missing Man Not Lost” which highlighted Villaruel’s 57 days of relentless search for Seemungal who went to the bank on October 2 to cash a $73,500 lump sum pension cheque and then mysteriously disappeared.
Villaruel, 59, believed that Seemungal, 68, was held captive against his will by fellow villagers who were beating and abusing him for his “big money.”
In her quest to find Seemungal, she knocked on every neighbour’s door, called friends and family, turned to the Hunters Search and Rescue Team for help and also made a missing person’s report at two police stations.
Refusing to give up, last month Villaruel travelled to Blanchisseuse where she believed Seemungal was being held captive in a hut behind a large farm.
However, after six Arima CID officers investigated Villaruel’s report on November 27, the police found Seemungal living comfortably in a furnished apartment.
Their investigations brought closure to Villaruel’s persistent hunt for Seemungal who told police he had ended his relationship with Villaruel as he wanted peace of mind and had no desire to return home.
Villaruel was shattered and left in denial after the man she dearly loved rejected her.
Her story brought further pain to her broken heart as people took to social media to bash her.
'Come back home'
Villaruel said if she knew where Seemungal was renting, she would have hired a truck to transport his belongings back home.
“Them know that. When I see he, yes, he would come home. That man will come home. I know my husband,” she insisted.
Insisting that jealousy led to this, Villaruel was of the firm belief that two villagers in her community “chained up” Seemungal to leave so they could enjoy his pension money and make him work as a repairman to their benefit.
“Is the man pension all of them living on. They like freeness. They will eat out he money. He have to mind all of them. Let he mind them, the money go done. They get him ready-made.”
She wondered why Seemungal could not “tell me in meh face” that he was ending their relationship.
“Why I have to be putting you missing and do all kind of thing when I ain’t see you (come home). None of them telling me nothing. Why I have to do that? Is because the man wanted to come home, so they forcing the man to stay there.”
Despite the separation, Villaruel said, Seemungal is still refusing to answer his cell phone which he used for his business and to get jobs.
“They controlling he phone,” she said, “and I sure they not looking after his health and taking him to the clinic.”
She said Seemungal suffers from hypertension and diabetes and needs his medication daily.
“That is a businessman. He is a Jack of all trades. Christmas coming. When he was by me all now he fixing fridge ... he fixing tv. I helped him buy tools to fix fridge. Right now my fridge want fixing. And my tv gone bad.”
She admitted the situation was hurting her heart.
“It must hurt meh,” she said.
If anything were to happen to Seemungal, Villaruel questioned who would get his worldly possessions, money and valuables.
“I have nothing to get.”
She remembered one villager keeping Seemungal’s bank card which she had to pull him up about.
Days after Seemungal went missing, Villaruel said someone broke into her home and stole his three weed whackers and a pile of tools.
“They break my place and steal every valuable thing. So they get a good handyman.”
Villaruel said she worked in her younger days as a janitor to buy Seemungal his tools.
“Them tools ... is most of them I buy to start him with a business. I still have the bills for some of them.”
During their relationship, Villaruel admitted that Seemungal never ill-treated her.
“All he used to do is drink the alcohol and then he would go out the road and them thing. He never used to treat (ill-treat) me ...”
Many times, Villaruel said, she had to speak to Seemungal about taking care of his health because two of his relatives had died as a result of prolonged alcohol consumption.
The last thing Villaruel said she wanted to see was Seemungal suffering on a bed with kidney and liver problems.
When they started courting, Villaruel said Seemungal lived in a little place with barely any furnishing and she encouraged him to move into her home.
One thing Villaruel said she admired about Seemungal was his passion for cooking.
“He was my cook. That man love to cook. Every time I passing they (neighbours) used to say, aye, you going home, you getting your food hot. Who wouldn’t want them kind of man? Eh!”
Describing Seemungal as a quiet fella, Villaruel said he always had the privilege to cook what he wanted.
Asked if she ever treated Seemungal badly, Villaruel replied “Badly! That man had a television for himself. He getting tea, breakfast and dinner, that man use to get the best.”
Every week, Villaruel said, she purchased medication for Seemungal’s arthritis and ensured his health was taken care of.
“I always there with him in the eye clinic. I never throw him out. He clothes never outside in the rain.”
Questioned if she nagged Seemungal, Villaruel said a few times she spoke to him about his drinking.
Asked if she loved Seemungal, Villaruel replied, “Let me tell you something, my dear, I truly did love this man.”
Vowing to leave everything in the hands of the Almighty, Villaruel said, “God doh sleep. People too advantageous. But God is love, my dear.”
As a child of God, Villaruel said, the Almighty would help her through this ordeal.
The plot to leave
On Tuesday, the Sunday Guardian visited the street where Villaruel lives to find out from residents if they knew about Seemungal’s plan to move out of the community.
Obliquely opposite Villaruel’s home, one man, who opted not to give his name, said he knew of Seemungal’s plot to leave.
“He fed-up of she (Villaruel). He say he had enough of she.”
The man said that sometimes Seemungal was blocked from entering the house, explaining, “If he buy a little nip of rum she getting on and locking him out. So he gone now she can’t take it. He is the breadwinner too. That is she place, so you know how it goes.”
He said he allowed Seemungal to sleep in his gallery a few times when Villaruel closed her door on him.
Pointing out that he was not happy with the turn of events, the man said Villaruel genuinely loves Seemungal.
“Me ain’t happy that he left, you know. Look how long they lived together.”
He said Villaruel was facing “pressure” because Seemungal was not around to repair her fridge and other items.
Like any other couple, the man said, “They used to have their little ups and downs.”
The villager said he doubted Seemungal would return.
“Nah, I ain’t feel so.”
A stone’s throw away, a female resident described the separation as “husband-and-wife business” but pointed out that a few times Seemungal was locked out of the house.
This, she said, was a known fact, stating that Seemungal was “terrorised”.
“He was fed up and decided to be on his own. Everybody is very happy for him,” the woman said.
She said Seemungal was comfortable at his place but opted not to say where he had moved to.
Insisting that nobody whisked Seemungal away or encouraged him to leave, the resident assured that the villagers were not using Seemungal for his pension money.
“No, no, no ... It is nothing like that.”
An elderly shopkeeper admitted in all relationships “there must be a little ding-dang,” but said he had no idea Seemungal had moved out until he read it in the newspaper.
Repeated calls to Seemungal’s phone on Wednesday and Thursday went unanswered.
