Police officers and Coast Guard divers are expected to return to the Mitan River, Manzanilla, today, to resume their search for the body of missing prison officer Rishi Sankar.
The search for the missing officer ended around 4.30 pm yesterday because of the increase in tide.
Sankar, 34, of Perseverance Village and Stone Road, Piparo, was reported missing after he failed to report to duty following his last tour of duty on June 17. A missing person's report indicated he was last seen on June 22. Sankar was assigned to the Golden Grove Prison, Arouca.
The search for the body of Sankar began on Thursday evening when police stopped two men in his car. Police said the men claimed they found the car with the keys in the ignition, but the license plate was altered. Further questioning led police to suspect that Sankar was murdered and his body dumped in the river. Police said they received credible information that Sankar was robbed, beaten and killed before the thieves made off with his vehicle.
ASP Kandhai, Insp Jankie and Homicide officers, led by Supt Grahindo, boarded two fishing boats around 10 am yesterday, and with the aid of two fishermen searched the river banks and the riverbed but were unsuccessful. Police said the search had to be called off as high tide made it difficult and dangerous to continue. The encroaching darkness also made searching the murky waters difficult.
The Mitan River has been highlighted in recent media reports as a dumping site for murderers who, in March and April, disposed of the bodies of two women in the river. On March 15, the decapitated and dismembered body of Eden Teesdale was found in a blue barrel floating on the river. To this day, Teesdale's head has not been recovered. One month later, Felicia Persad, 29, who was last seen alive on April 2, was found wrapped in plastic floating in the river.
Persad, of Oropouche Road, Sangre Grande, was supposed to appear before a Sangre Grande Magistrate two days before her body was found, in a bid to obtain a restraining order against a man with whom she shared a two-year relationship. Due to non-appearance in court the matter was adjourned to a later date. About midday, on April 15, forestry workers cleaning the river bank near the sea found her body.
This would one of several attacks on prison officers so far this year.
On February 29, Fitzalbert Victor, 32, was killed while washing his SUV at his Prizgar Lands, Laventille, home. Police said a gunman jumped the fence and shot Victor seven times before fleeing. Victor worked at the Port-of-Spain Remand Yard.
Yesterday, fellow prison officers said they never heard anything bad about Sankar and were surprised he had not shown up for duty. The officers maintained that Sankar was a decent man who "had no problem with anyone in the prison, so it could not have been a prison thing."
"He was a small kind of fellow who used to lift a lot of weights and we were just wondering what happened to him. He used to stay to himself. He would just go downstairs and lift weights," one officer, who did not want to be identified, said.
President of the Prison Officers Association, Ceron Richards, told the T&T Guardian in a telephone interview that they were looking at the situation very closely and were leaving the police to their jobs.
Richards added that they still had no confirmation that Sankar was dead and will respond in due time. He added that as the search continues, he hoped that the police "can provide some information to the family so that they can get a sense of what happened to their loved one." (With reporting by Ralph Banwarie)
Matura man gunned down
A 32-year-old Matura man was shot dead yesterday.
Police said Brenton Ruiz succumbed to gunshot wounds while being treated at Sangre Grande Hospital.
Ruiz, an unemployed man of Church Street, Matura, was shot about the body by a lone gunman while walking along Church Street, Matura, around 7.30 am.
Villagers reportedly heard the gunshots and when they investigated found Ruiz in the road begging for help.
Residents placed him in a vehicle and rushed him to the Sangre Grande District Hospital, where he died while receiving medical attention.
Ruiz is well known by Eastern Division police but they are yet to determine a motive for his killing.
Homicide officer ASP Dillon of Region II Arouca is continuing with the inquiries.