Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
The mother of Candace Cassie-Ann Lemessy says her family is hurting and desperately seeking answers after her daughter was gunned down near their Mayaro home.
The 41-year-old mother of two was heading home when shots were fired at her vehicle, killing her on the spot. Her van then crashed into a building, which was once a bar, along Church Road, a short distance away from her home.
Residents called the police, who, on arrival, saw her body slumped over the passenger side, leaning on the door.
Officers later found six spent .38 calibre shells at the scene. Lemessy, who was a contractor, was shot multiple times in the chest.
Police have received information that she had been receiving death threats following an altercation a few months ago.
Speaking with Guardian Media at her Mayaro home yesterday, Lemessy’s 72-year-old mother, Meria Lemessy, said she was unaware of the threats and had no idea why anyone would want her daughter dead.
“Always a happy child—never one day you see Candace vex. Candace could make people laugh at a funeral. Anytime she reach, everybody laughing. Happy, jolly,” the grieving mother said.
Recalling that her daughter’s body was still in the van when she arrived on the scene, she said she was only allowed to see her when the body was placed on a stretcher.
“I was slapping her face, ‘Candy, get up, Candy, get up, get up,’” sobbed the mother as she wiped away tears.
Lamenting that a few weeks ago the family faced another traumatic incident involving her two other daughters and one of her sons, the mother of ten insisted that the incidents were not linked, and she pleaded with the public not to speculate.
Her daughters were charged with grievous bodily harm and ordered to leave their home as a condition of their bail.
“I wish if they could take that off the air (social media). Why they doing that?” she lamented. Another relative also denied claims that that incident was linked to a land dispute.
The mother said Lemessy was the sixth of her children and the first one she would be burying. “It’s really hard,” she lamented but was confident that those responsible will be brought to justice.
Homicide officers are investigating.