The search for Candace Honore ended yesterday, after a suitcase containing human remains believed to be hers was pulled from a shallow pond along Oropouche Road, Valencia.
The 22-year-old woman was reported missing on July 10, two days after she failed to return home from work at a community roti shop.
While Honore’s parents were not allowed to view the dismembered remains, which were stuffed into several grocery bags and packed into a black suitcase, they accepted it was her.
Acting on information they received from the public, the Hunters Search and Rescue Team, led by Vallence Rambharat, went to the area around 6 am and began a search which took them to a fenced plot of land that was overgrown with bushes and had a small pond.
With the stench of rotting flesh pervading the air and flies buzzing, the team later pulled the suitcase from the brown, murky water and, under instruction by officers from the Valencia Police Station, unzipped it.
Rambharat recalled, “What we saw was black and clear plastic bags inside. The officers approached and shortly thereafter indicated to me that what they had observed was a human hand in one of the bags.”
Guardian Media was told the suitcase was borrowed from a woman living in the area, while a wheelbarrow was used to transport it to the dump site and then returned to the owner.
Asked if Honore had been identified as the victim inside the suitcase, her father Michael Honore and Rambharat said no.
Despite not being allowed to view the clothing and personal items, Honore said he had accepted it was her.
Visibly shaking as he spoke, Honore said although he lived away from his children, he always stayed in touch.
“But for it to reach this distance with Candace here right now, this, this wasn’t really accepting to me from day one ... I wasn’t seeing it.”
He had a message for parents.
“I just want to tell all parents, all yuh follow up on all the children, especially female, boys as well, because all yuh don’t know what’s going on or you can never know, right?”
Asked if his daughter had fallen prey to an online predator, he said, “Well, not really online and all but the thing about it is you’re gonna like to post a nice picture just normal, and send it out with a friend or whatever.
“Somebody else who was in the picture at some point in time, might see it and they might be jealous ... don’t mind all yuh might still be communicating, you don’t know. You don’t know how people mindset is. So, what we’re doing on this publicity, what we doing out here, we have to be aware of everything going on.”
At Candace’s home in Caigual Road, Sangre Chiquito, her mother and sister struggled to digest the news.
Maintaining a stoic facade, the victim’s mother, who did not want to be identified by name, described her as “a very kind, loving person.” But she admitted her daughter had a problem in her choice of partners and wasn’t always able to make a clean break.
“She had a way about her that, she saw a problem with the guys running her down. I don’t know why, to put it like that. And she used to have problem just shunning them away,” the woman said.
Candace’s mother last saw her on July 7, after she fed her dog and retired to bed.
“I didn’t even see her because I was sleeping still. If she see me sleeping, she wouldn’t wake me up. But if I’m awake, she would come and say she leaving.”
Saying Candace was known for spending one or two nights away from home, her family said they were not alarmed when she failed to return home immediately.
It was only when calls to her cellphone went unanswered they decided to file a missing persons report with the police.
Candace’s mother said based on the current crime situation, they had been bracing for anything.
“All I can say is, I thank God that she has been found. I know that it’s not the way I would have wanted her to be found, but I thank God there is a closure. That is all. Because people go missing and you don’t ever hear, you don’t ever find any body after years. So, I am very thankful for that.”
She told parents, “Keep our children covered with the blood of Jesus. Without God in our family life, there is nothing.”
Candace’s sister Leann Honore, 18, spoke frankly about the abuse she endured at the hands of an ex-boyfriend, who was identified as a suspect in her disappearance.
While police continued the search for the suspect, who was recently released from prison, Leann said, “He used to threaten she. And very much obsessive and stalker like.”
Asked if Candace had ever reported it to the police, she admitted she was not sure, although other people, including her mother, did.
“It’s very sad that it reached this because okay, she gone ... but like the fact how she died, how they found her. That’s the power hurting me the most because I don’t think she did anything to anyone to deserve this kind of death.”
