SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Two months af­ter her daugh­ter was re­port­ed miss­ing and lat­er found mur­dered in a riv­er, the moth­er of Ashan­ti Ri­ley on Wednes­day de­scribed the dis­ap­pear­ance of An­drea Bharatt as a night­mare com­ing to life again as the two women were snatched on the same date.

Can­dice Ri­ley spoke about the sim­i­lar­i­ties be­tween the two women at a Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) can­dle­light vig­il in Ari­ma held for 23-year-old kid­nap vic­tim An­drea Bharatt on Wednes­day.

The vig­il, or­gan­ised by the UNC’s Women’s Arm and Ari­ma Cen­tral coun­cil­lor Shel­don Gar­cia was at­tend­ed by Bharatt’s cousin Sal­ly Sooman, Ri­ley and the par­ents of Shar­day Em­manuel, who van­ished with­out a trace in 2018.

Bharatt was kid­napped last Fri­day af­ter she went in­to a taxi with a co-work­er. The co-work­er dropped off at Cleaver Heights, Ari­ma. Bharatt nev­er made it home and her body was found in the Heights of Aripo yes­ter­day.

Un­der the watch­ful eyes of the po­lice, San Juan/Barataria MP Sadam Ho­sein, who ad­dressed the gath­er­ing, said no one can imag­ine what Ran­dolph Bharatt, An­drea’s dad, has been en­dur­ing.

He said we can­not al­low our women to be dis­re­spect­ed.

“We have to stand up. We must take ac­tion now,” Ho­sein said.

Chair of UNC’s Women’s Arm Kenya Charles said the UNC de­cid­ed to hold the vig­il to show the Bharatts and fam­i­lies of miss­ing and mur­dered women “that we are here for them.”

As the at­ten­dees prayed for the safe re­turn of Bharatt, Sooman wept con­stant­ly and left the meet­ing be­fore it end­ed.

St Au­gus­tine MP Khadi­jah Ameen told Guardian Me­dia the UNC will co­op­er­ate with the Gov­ern­ment to bring good law to pro­tect women.

Hold­ing back tears, Ri­ley said at­tend­ing the vig­il brought back mem­o­ries of Ashan­ti’s death.

Ashan­ti was last seen board­ing a PH taxi in San Juan.

Days lat­er her body was found in a San­ta Cruz riv­er.

“Ashan­ti was last seen on No­vem­ber 29 while An­drea was kid­napped on Jan­u­ary 29. The same date...the same way.... they both got in­to a taxi. There are so many sim­i­lar­i­ties so it’s like re­liv­ing the pain and agony all over again. I had to muster the courage to come here be­cause I know it would not have been easy. And it has not been easy for me.”

Ri­ley said every time a woman dis­ap­pears her heart is shat­tered.

“I keep telling my­self this can’t be hap­pen­ing again. I want­ed to reach out to An­drea’s fa­ther and tell him I know what he is go­ing through be­cause I was in that same sit­u­a­tion....wait­ing to hear if they find Ashan­ti. It was hard. No par­ent should go through this. None!”

When dark falls, Ri­ley said she won­dered if Ashan­ti was cold, hun­gry and alone.

She said those thoughts would sure­ly en­ter the mind of An­drea’s fa­ther.

“You can’t sleep....eat...drink. All you study­ing is your child....whether you are go­ing to see her walk through that front door again. It breaks you down.”

Ri­ley said she got clo­sure be­cause Ashan­ti’s body was found.

Ju­nior Em­manuel, Shar­day’s dad, said his stom­ach churned when he heard about An­drea’s kid­nap­ping.

“It’s like re­liv­ing that hor­ri­ble ex­pe­ri­ence all over again. I know what An­drea’s fa­ther is go­ing through. Be­lieve me, it’s a fa­ther’s worst night­mare. I nev­er got clo­sure so this has been a nev­er-end­ing tor­ment to her fam­i­ly and friends.”

This June would mark three years since Shar­day went miss­ing.

“Shar­day want­ed to end a re­la­tion­ship. We found out about all this af­ter she dis­ap­peared. She hid this from us.”

Two years ago, Em­manuel said the re­mains of a body was found in San­ta Flo­ra.

“We are still await­ing DNA re­sult to find out if it is Shar­day or not.”