Shane Su­perville

Se­nior Re­porter

shane.su­perville@guardian.co.tt

Two days of search­es and in­ves­ti­ga­tions came to an end when kid­nap vic­tims Ryan Singh, 18, and Keer­an Latch­man, 21, fled from a shed in the Va­len­cia for­est where they were kept by cap­tors since their ab­duc­tion ear­li­er this week.

Po­lice said Singh es­caped the hide­out some­time af­ter 11 am and ran along San Pe­dro Road, through dirt tracks, be­fore be­ing tak­en to the Va­len­cia Po­lice Post.

Latch­man fol­lowed short­ly af­ter.

While at the sta­tion, the men were in­ter­viewed by of­fi­cers of the An­ti-Kid­nap­ping Unit (AKU).

Po­lice said two men were ar­rest­ed by of­fi­cers of the North­ern and East­ern Di­vi­sion in re­la­tion to the kid­nap­ping soon af­ter.

Of­fi­cers said Singh and Latch­man - both from D’Abadie - were con­front­ed by kid­nap­pers on Mon­day morn­ing while dri­ving to Va­len­cia to de­liv­er scaf­fold­ing ma­te­r­i­al.

Po­lice sources said a $1.2 mil­lion ran­som was de­mand­ed for the safe re­lease of both men, how­ev­er, this was not paid.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed Singh’s Boys’ Lane home yes­ter­day, his aunt Veron­i­ca Singh said she was grate­ful that both men were found un­harmed. She lament­ed what she said was the re­cent uptick of kid­nap­pings for ran­som in the coun­try.

She felt more should have been done to find her nephew.

“I find it’s way too much. I find they should crack down a lot on this and get a han­dle on it... I know it’s dif­fi­cult, but they should do more.

“I find when they got kid­napped, I don’t think every­thing hap­pened fast enough to get them back.”

The aunt said the fam­i­ly on­ly learned about the kid­nap­ping on Tues­day when the van used by her nephew and Latch­man was found aban­doned in Arou­ca.

Singh said her nephew knew Latch­man for a few months and be­gan work­ing with him rel­a­tive­ly re­cent­ly.

She said the fam­i­ly was trau­ma­tised since her nephew’s kid­nap­ping, which has been par­tic­u­lar­ly dif­fi­cult for his moth­er, who is preg­nant.

“She is about five months along, so it was very hard on her. Every­one was just pray­ing and hop­ing that they re­leased them.”

An­oth­er rel­a­tive, who asked not to be named, said she prayed for Singh’s re­turn.

“We didn’t sleep good. I kneel down and pray on the ground. Went down on the ground on my knees, bawl­ing and cry­ing and pound­ing my fore­head all on the ground.”

The woman said one of Singh’s sib­lings was shot a few years ago, so the trau­ma of the in­ci­dent stayed with the fam­i­ly as they feared the worst af­ter learn­ing of the kid­nap­ping.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the Va­len­cia Po­lice Post, of­fi­cers of the AKU and the Na­tion­al Op­er­a­tions Task Force (NOTF) were seen en­ter­ing and leav­ing the sta­tion as the rel­a­tives of both men stood across the street from the sta­tion wait­ing to see them.

Po­lice sources re­vealed one of the vic­tims was tak­en back to the area by of­fi­cers of the East­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force to iden­ti­fy ex­act­ly where they were held.

Of­fi­cers searched sur­round­ings, in­clud­ing near­by dirt roads named Rus­Tu­na Road and Tall­boy Lane in the gen­er­al San Pe­dro com­mu­ni­ty.

In a po­lice me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day, Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro com­mend­ed of­fi­cers for their ef­forts in find­ing the men, not­ing that it was tes­ta­ment to the ded­i­ca­tion of of­fi­cers and units in­volved.

“The swift re­sponse and in­ter-agency co­or­di­na­tion un­der­score our com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing cit­i­zens and dis­man­tling crim­i­nal net­works.

“I com­mend the of­fi­cers for their dis­ci­plined ap­proach and ex­press re­lief at the safe re­turn of the vic­tims.”

Res­i­dents sur­prised

The area where Singh and Latch­man were held is sparse­ly pop­u­lat­ed with hous­es few and far apart and sep­a­rat­ed by bush­es and high grass.

One res­i­dent, who asked not to be named, said he was sur­prised to hear that kid­nap vic­tims were held at a house in the com­mu­ni­ty. He said the area was usu­al­ly oc­cu­pied by farm­ers who worked on the fields near­by.

“This isn’t usu­al­ly a place where you had to lock your doors and wor­ry about shoot­ing, but I guess this is the kind of area where peo­ple could hide and do all kinds of things. This kid­nap thing is the first I’m hear­ing of it here.”

On Mon­day, kid­nap vic­tim Jankie Satie Karim, 44, was found at an aban­doned beach house in Ram­panal­gas, al­so in east Trinidad.

A se­nior po­lice of­fi­cer said while rur­al, re­mote lo­ca­tions with poor in­fra­struc­ture and small pop­u­la­tions were ide­al hide­outs for kid­nap­pers, neigh­bours should take an ac­tive in­ter­est in their com­mu­ni­ties.

He said even the small­est de­tails could mean the dif­fer­ence in help­ing po­lice find kid­nap vic­tims.

“If you see some­thing, say some­thing. These are ar­eas where peo­ple tend to tra­verse for hik­ing or to go for eco tourism and so on, so we re­al­ly need this kind of sup­port.”

An­oth­er of­fi­cer as­signed to an in­tel­li­gence unit said the area where both men were held was part of the ter­ri­to­ry of a gang, whose leader was in­car­cer­at­ed.