Erin fisherman Robert Mendoza, who was critically injured when gunmen invaded his home and killed his wife, remains in hospital and is yet to be interviewed by police officers regarding the case.
Investigators are still hoping for a comprehensive interview from Mendoza, 46, who underwent surgery for gunshot wounds to his chest and shoulder.
Up to yesterday, no one was arrested as police continue to probe the theory that the attack was a hired hit, ordered by a drug cartel following the Coast Guard’s seizure of millions of dollars worth of cocaine.
Mendoza owned several fishing pirogues which operate in the waters off Trinidad’s south coast.
It was a week ago when Mendoza and his wife Ellen Joseph, 30, a COSTAATT nursing student, were sitting in the living room at their Rancho Quemado home when around 8.25 pm, three gunmen entered the house.
Their children, ages seven and five, were in the kitchen with the Venezuelan maid.
A relative said he heard gunshots and looked out to see three men running from the house to a Nissan Tiida sedan parked on the roadside.
When he checked, he found Joseph breathing faintly on the living room floor while Mendoza was slumped in a chair. Relatives took Mendoza to the Siparia District Health Facility where he was treated and transferred to the San Fernando General Hospital. Joseph succumbed to her injuries at the house.
The children were put in the care of relatives.
Santa Flora police later found the gunmen’s vehicle along Los Iros Beach. It was torched and witnesses said the gunmen fled via a pirogue.
Witnesses reportedly told the police the suspects appeared to be local and Venezuelans.