Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
A routine visit to his father’s Princes Town home on Sunday turned into a horrifying discovery for Dominic Hanson, who found his 70-year-old father dead, with his hands and feet bound.
Yesterday, the son of retired police officer Anthony Hanson was hoping that those responsible for his father’s killing would be brought to justice.
He said his father retired early due to illness but was last assigned to the Southern Division. The retired officer lived alone in the house, having moved into the property a few years after his parents died. He said he last spoke to his father about two weeks ago, and decided to visit him on Sunday.
He arrived at his father’s home around 11.30 am.
Usually, whenever he rang the doorbell, his father would come out and open the gate. However, on Sunday, there was no response. He noticed that the gate was open and the back door was also ajar. Sensing that something was wrong, he decided to enter the house.
“When I walk in the door now, I find the whole atmosphere was feeling weird,” he said. Hanson said the house had been ransacked and the television was missing. Afraid, he left the house and telephoned his aunt. He asked whether his father was with her before asking her to come to the property.
When they entered the house together, they found the retired officer lying on the bedroom floor with his hands and feet bound and his face covered with clothing.
He said his father had never expressed fear about living alone and had not experienced any previous break-ins at the property.
“He was never scared or anything because mostly, he always inside. He never really come outside, so that had me worried, how on that day the door was open,” he said.
He said several items, including appliances, were stolen from the house. Hanson said his father’s brother had recently returned from abroad with several items, including televisions that were still in their boxes.
His father’s brother is expected to return to T&T on Thursday.
Hanson said he was hoping the police would determine what had happened and identify those responsible for his father’s death. “I am hoping for justice,” he said.
Describing his father’s murder as horrible, Hanson said the experience had left him grappling with the reality of violent crime.
“It is the worst. Times like this, you don’t know what to expect. When you wake up every day, you see what happening. It is horrible to know that you have to experience something like that,” he said.
Neighbour Ronald Bahadur said he last saw Hanson about a week ago; he had gone to the grocery and was heading back home. Bahadur said he only realised something had happened when he saw several vehicles parked in front of the victim’s house. Describing the killing as shocking, he said the street was one of the quietest in the area. “We never had any kind of crimes or anything like that here,” he said. Bahadur said he never imagined a murder would occur next door to him. “I feel very bad, because I always read about it. I see it on the news, now it real. Next door by me,” he said.
Bahadur, who operates a roadside stall in front of his home, said Hanson sometimes bought fruit from him. “But he always stop and talk to me,” he said. Bahadur said he worked at the back of the house five months ago, and recently the victim’s brother did repairs to the house and cut some trees before returning to the US two weeks ago. Residents said in the last few weeks they have been seeing young men, who were strangers to the neighbourhood, lurking in the street at night.
Investigators are awaiting an autopsy at the Forensic Science Centre in Port-of-Spain this week to determine the exact cause of death. Officers of the Homicide Bureau of Investigations, Region Three, are continuing investigations.
