Derek Achong

Over the past year, a group of al­most two dozen hunters have de­vot­ed their time and col­lec­tive ex­per­tise to as­sist mem­bers of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices in nu­mer­ous search and res­cue mis­sions across T&T. 

On Thurs­day, mem­bers of the Hunters Search and Res­cue Team an­swered the call for the 28th time as they were re­cruit­ed to as­sist po­lice of­fi­cers in the search for miss­ing 28-year-old San­ta Cruz res­i­dent Kezia Jene­ka Guer­ra.

While their most re­cent search end­ed trag­i­cal­ly with Guer­ra’s de­com­pos­ing body be­ing dis­cov­ered in a shal­low grave off San­ta Bar­bara Road in Mara­cas, St Joseph, short­ly af­ter the search be­gan on Thurs­day, mem­bers of the group were hap­py to as­sist and vowed to con­tin­ue vol­un­teer­ing in the fu­ture. 

In a brief in­ter­view at the crime scene, the group’s cap­tain Val­lance Ramb­harat called on cit­i­zens with miss­ing loved ones to con­tin­ue to seek their as­sis­tance. “We do this for free and want T&T to know that any time peo­ple are look­ing for clo­sure in cas­es, call the Hunters Search and Res­cue Team and we will be there,” Ramb­harat said. 

He said that while sev­er­al mem­bers are Hin­dus, who were cel­e­brat­ing Di­vali that day. Many chose to leave their fam­i­lies well be­fore dawn to join the search in the re­mote area as they view their work as their civic du­ty.

Ramb­harat ex­plained that since the group was formed as an off­shoot of its com­man­der Ren Gopiesingh’s pop­u­lar hunt­ing and fish­ing Face­book page, Hard Grounds Get Soft, they had been in­un­dat­ed with calls from cit­i­zens seek­ing clo­sure for their miss­ing rel­a­tives.

“The mo­ti­va­tion comes from per­sons who are pas­sion­ate, very skilled and will­ing to do­nate some time and en­er­gy to bring clo­sure to fam­i­lies who find them­selves in dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tions,” Ramb­harat said.

Asked how the group’s mem­bers cope with the search­es, which some­times re­sults in the dis­cov­ery of de­com­pos­ing bod­ies of miss­ing per­sons, Ramb­harat said it was easy based on their ex­pe­ri­ence as hunters.

“We are strong be­cause we are hunters and we are ac­cus­tomed to deal­ing with rough ter­rain and dif­fi­cult cir­cum­stances,” Ramb­harat said.

“The prob­lem is for us to give of our time and we have done so con­sis­tent­ly over the past few months. We go any­where and every­where,” he added.

Ramb­harat said that the group had de­vel­oped a good work­ing re­la­tion­ship with po­lice units across the coun­try be­cause they re­spect the po­lice’s role and agree to not dis­close sen­si­tive in­for­ma­tion which may be re­vealed dur­ing joint search­es.

“Any­thing we come across in terms of in­tel­li­gence we would keep it clas­si­fied,” Ramb­harat said.

Ramb­harat not­ed that the group’s work was not lim­it­ed to dense­ly forest­ed ar­eas fre­quent­ed by hunters and hik­ers but al­so ex­tend­ed to the wa­ters and coast­line across T&T. 

He said that mem­bers of the group re­cent­ly vis­it­ed To­ba­go to as­sist in the search for miss­ing To­ba­go fish­er­man At­i­ba Williams, who has not been found since leav­ing home to go fish­ing in mid-Oc­to­ber.

“It is our in­ten­tion if he is not found to go back there soon to search just to bring clo­sure for the Williams fam­i­ly in To­ba­go,” he said.

Any­one in need of the ser­vices of the group can con­tact them via Face­book or at 329-7170.