Despite unsuccessful searches by the police, tracker dogs, friends and family over the last three weeks for 85-year-old Siew Ramnarine, his relatives are still clinging to hope that he will return home alive.
Ramnarine who suffers from Alzheimer's disappeared three weeks ago. He was last seen walking in his village at Doorbal Road, Brasso Piedra, Flanagin Town around 6.15 am on July 7.
Ramnarine, a former caretaker of his family cocoa estate, lives with his nephew has no wife or children.
When relatives realised he was missing they called his cellphone, went searching for him, spoke to the neighbours and eventually contacted the police.
His niece Karina Ali said his memory would come and go, but he was usually aware of his surroundings. She said officers from the Anti-Kidnapping Unit along with tracker dogs searched last week and the Hunters Search and Rescue (Hard Grounds Get Soft) crew also searched.
"We tried going back to where he used to work in his younger days and where he grew up as a child because he did not grow up here, he grew up further up in the cocoa lands where he used to be in.
"It is really sad, all of us here are really blank. We are devastated, confused as to where he went because we searched as the places possible, family, friends, neighbours, everybody came out and we searched all the areas he would have frequented in his earlier days."
Ramnarine had a stroke in 2017, but Ali said he made a full recovery. He is not on any medication and has no ailments.
Although concerned about the volume of rainfall since he has been missing, Ali said, "We want to keep the faith that he is still alive, that he is still out there. We keep on telling ourselves as an older person he could have gotten stuff from the land, so we keep on telling ourselves he getting stuff off the land to eat so we holding on to hope that he is still alive."
Although they have no clue what could have happened to him, Ali doesn't believe that he was kidnapped.
She said they visited all the hospitals and have given out and posted missing person flyers, as well as searched various areas in Central and Port of Spain.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the police or relatives at 331-3168 or 396-3408.