RHON­DOR DOWLAT

Se­nior Re­porter

rhon­dor.dowlat@guardian.co.tt

A griev­ing moth­er, Lana Pan­do­hee Knights, com­mem­o­rat­ed her daugh­ter’s 27th birth­day on Wednes­day by adorn­ing her grave with bal­loons.

Last month marked one year since Shantel Pan­do­hee Knights’ de­com­pos­ing body was found in St Au­gus­tine. The arm found was buried at the Tu­na­puna Pub­lic Ceme­tery and ever since Lana said she has been vis­it­ing the grave­side on every spe­cial oc­ca­sion.

The rest of Knights’ body is yet to be found. How­ev­er, Lana is not giv­ing up. She prays dai­ly for a sign that her daugh­ter can still be alive or atleast her body found. She al­so prays that she gets clo­sure as to what hap­pened to her daugh­ter.

Knights’ arm was found in a ravine at Mo­hammed Street in St Au­gus­tine, on May 11, 2023.

It was lat­er con­firmed to be that of miss­ing Knights via DNA test­ing that was done at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre in St James.

The limb was sub­se­quent­ly re­leased to Knights’ moth­er, who buried it in a tiny pink cof­fin. How­ev­er, she said since then she has re­ceived “no com­mu­ni­ca­tion from the po­lice or any­one.”

“Not reach­ing any­where or with any­one still. Sad. We nev­er got her body. On Wednes­day, her broth­er and I took bal­loons, pic­tures and a ban­ner and we dec­o­rat­ed the grave where her arm was buried. Bit­ter­sweet,” Lana said.

Head of the Homi­cide Snr Supt Rishi Singh when con­tact­ed con­firmed that in­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing, “We have pur­sued sev­er­al leads, how­ev­er, we have not yet been able to cross the ev­i­den­tial thresh­olds to lay charges.”

Knights, who was 25 years at the time was from Curepe and was last seen on April 1, 2023.

She was re­port­ed miss­ing the next day to the St. Joseph Po­lice Sta­tion.

Knights is of African de­scent, with a medi­um build and brown com­plex­ion. She was last seen wear­ing a white-shirt with a pair of cam­ou­flage pants.

Any­one with in­for­ma­tion on Knights is asked to call the St Joseph Po­lice Sta­tion at 662-4038 or 800-TIPS or con­tact the po­lice at 555, 999, 911, or any po­lice sta­tion.