On May 24, 1985, my only son, Larry Gajadhar, was brutally murdered. He and a female passenger in his car were hijacked by two men. They both (victims) endured the worse punishment and suffering at the hands of those two men (beasts).
The young woman whose name I will not reveal was unconscious but alive and lived to identify the two assailants. She does not live in Trinidad for she is fearful for her life. Whenever I meet and greet her, her entire body begins to shiver and tremble. Yes, my son was beaten with a piece of wood about his body and especially his head. He was dropped-kicked and he and the young woman were placed in the trunk of his own car of which the beasts took possession. hey were driven around for about five hours and then taken to Las Bajos, Santa Flora, where the two men inflicted further punishment on them and then slit their throats.
The young woman pretended to be dead but witnessed all that the men continued to do to my son. She became unconscious and woke up about 4 am to find herself naked and her body clotted in blood from her neck down. She and my son were thrown in a dump, the murderers thinking they would not be discovered and that corbeaux would eat them. The young woman covered herself with a garbage bag and started walking, not knowing where she was going. She was picked up by a passing truck and taken to the Santa Flora Police Station. Later on the murderers were caught, tried and sentenced to hang, but because of the Pratt and Morgan case they were sentenced to life. I have left out many details in this letter due to space. I am writing from Canada where I am vacationing with my two daughters and family. Before?I left for Canada at the end of June, I saw on the TV?news where Justice Minister Herbert Volney, with a big smile on his face, spoke about pardoning 50 prisoners for the 50th anniversary of independence. I was dumbstruck. In July I got a call from two probation officers in?south?Trinidad who asked me my opinion on the release of one of the murders.
I told them bluntly I was against that and gave the following reasons:
You have reopened a festering wound in our hearts.
There were threats from members of their families.
From their conviction to date I have lost three cars.
My house was broken into twice.
Rubbish/garbage was thrown all over my yard.
My two daughters were abducted and one almost died.
They had to flee from this country-no protection.
We never received any counselling or saw a psychologist.
Today I say yes, free him/ them, but first free me/us from:
The hurt, pain, anguish, sickness, medical bills, restlessness, sleeplessness nights, worries, nightmares etc.
Free my wife from a dangerous fall sustained because of worries and giddiness, hitting her left ear on the edge of a concrete step and causing permanent lost of hearing.
Free my elder daughter who took on the killing of her brother so seriously that she could not complete her secondary education.
Free us from all the bills I had to pay unnecessarily.
Free us from all trips abroad as suggested by doctors.
Free us/me from the vision I still see of the naked dead body of my son in a dump heap.
Free me from the 14 stab wounds I saw on my son's body.
Free me from seeing the cuts on the palms of his hands where he tried to shield himself.
Free me from the vision and the gaping hole I saw in his throat.
Yes, if or when the President, the Prime Minister, the Attorney General, Volney, (Legal Affairs Minister) Prakash?Ramadhar, the entire judicial system, (National Security Minister) Jack?Warner etc can free me/us from the above, then I say free them.
For the past 27 years, the public and myself have been supporting them in prison with food, clothing, medicine, doctor's visits, water etc, so I have been paying taxes to support the ones who killed my child. Today I demand my pound of flesh. Free them but compensate me and the other victim with a minimum of $2 million each. You cannot free them and leave us the victims to continue to suffer. I am sure that many of the families of murder victims will agree with me.
Saul Gajadhar
Palmyra