The latest grisly tale of the discovery of the body of teenager Hannah Mathura, seven years after her death, in a shallow grave on a property where she lived with her entire family, is one that has again awakened the emotions of Trinidad and Tobago citizens.
Already heavily weighed down by the day-to-day assaults of the criminal element, we are now faced with an incident of an apparent internally-inflicted nature which has left the country in shock.
And while the details are still unfolding, even as the police detained two suspects last evening and question Hannah’s other relatives in what is now a murder case, if ever citizens needed a sign that all is not truly well in society, this case is it.
If we are to take Hannah’s neighbours at their word, this incident again shows up the failings of State institutions tasked with handling the welfare of various members of society—in this case, children.
Even as questions arise about how this could happen in any community, neighbours have indicated that they reported angry fights and other instances of things not being right at the property to the T&T Police Service and Children’s Authority, including before and up to periods in 2017 when her life was ended.
Nothing, however, apparently came out of any of the responses to those calls to have convinced the authorities any further action was warranted.
Also, at 18 years of age, Hannah would have certainly interacted with various people, including her peers and teachers if she were allowed to go to school, as well as other members of society.
Sadly though, none of those close encounters triggered a direct intervention that could save her life. Neither did family members raise any credible alarm with the authorities before now.
In fact, had it not been for the whistleblower who spoke up this week, the TTPS would have been none the wiser to Hannah’s fate.
There is also the wider concern that other members of Hannah’s family may have been victims in this unfolding crime, which seriously begs the question, why did no one act to rescue her from a dangerous situation.
Still, this is not the first time citizens would have been left questioning the ability of various arms of the protective and social services to properly deal with cases that ultimately led to the deaths of minors and even adults. The list is too long to go into here but some of these cases point to a malaise within authoritative bodies that ought not to exist given the responsibility they hold within the society.
With enough blame to go around, this latest case clearly shows that reports of incidents in Hannah’s household were never fully interrogated by the authorities charged with doing so. Needless to say, it is high time that the people charged with managing the affairs of these social institutions realise that their inaction can have dire consequences and make a rapid change in their modus operandi. Hannah’s death should be the watershed moment for that change.