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Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Parlatuvier rocked by death of mom, children

Friend: Community let Sarah down

by

Elizabeth Gonzales
271 days ago
20240913

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

The Par­latu­vi­er com­mu­ni­ty is in shock af­ter a moth­er and her two chil­dren were found dead at the bot­tom of a de­com­mis­sioned Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) reser­voir.

Days be­fore Sarah Smith and chil­dren Gen­uine, three, and one-year-old Phoenix, were found dead, the moth­er was re­port­ed­ly plead­ing for help.

How­ev­er, close friend Isha Mar­tin said yes­ter­day that no one lis­tened when Smith had a men­tal break­down and start­ed wan­der­ing the streets. She be­lieves Smith’s death was due to spir­i­tu­al wicked­ness.

“This is not nat­ur­al at all. The whole thing is not nat­ur­al, and I’m so hurt to see that the peo­ple who ac­tu­al­ly watched her walk down that road naked with her chil­dren didn’t stop her. Come on, what kind of com­mu­ni­ty is this?”

Be­fore the in­ci­dent, Smith, orig­i­nal­ly from Trinidad, moved to Par­latu­vi­er for a bet­ter life with her chil­dren.

“This is not Sarah. She is a strong Black woman who would not take her chil­dren’s lives. This is not Sarah. I will not ac­cept that she did this on her own. Those chil­dren were her life.”

Mar­tin said po­lice took Smith’s for­mer busi­ness part­ner in for ques­tion­ing on Wednes­day. Dur­ing the in­ter­ro­ga­tion, how­ev­er, they no­ticed a foul smell.

“The po­lice stopped, start­ed search­ing, and im­me­di­ate­ly found them,” she said.

Smith’s moth­er, Jacque­line Wayne, is dev­as­tat­ed by the killings.

“This is a hor­ri­ble time for me. I can’t deal with any­thing right now … I came up here to find my daugh­ter and grand­son alive, not dead,” Wayne said on Wednes­day

Smith was last seen on Sep­tem­ber 2, be­hav­ing er­rat­i­cal­ly as she walked through the com­mu­ni­ty.

The dis­cov­ery of their bod­ies was a dev­as­tat­ing end af­ter a three-hour search, leav­ing rel­a­tives and friends shat­tered and a com­mu­ni­ty in dis­be­lief.

Hours af­ter the dis­cov­ery, a work crew called to the site cut through the bot­tom of the 40-foot tank to gain ac­cess to the bod­ies. The bod­ies were then re­moved to the Scar­bor­ough Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal Mor­tu­ary for au­top­sies to be per­formed.

Po­lice of­fi­cers said there was no mark of vi­o­lence on the bod­ies.

Yes­ter­day, res­i­dents, while still reel­ing in shock, said they hoped the in­ci­dent doesn’t change how the com­mu­ni­ty is per­ceived.

Res­i­dent Akeem St Bryce told the me­dia, “It’s record-break­ing. This side of the is­land has al­ways been about peace and love. These young kids didn’t even have a chance.”

An­oth­er res­i­dent, Ken­rick Clarke, said he’s un­easy.

“It’s trag­ic right now. I have kids, and it’s re­al­ly trag­ic.”

Smith’s for­mer busi­ness part­ner said she wasn’t the same af­ter their busi­ness deal went sour.

A man who on­ly iden­ti­fied him­self as Phillips, said, “A la­dy told me that some­body saw her in the road get­ting on crazy, naked, with the ba­by. I don’t feel good. It’s my friend, and I’m cry­ing all now.”

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine said the in­ci­dent was un­set­tling and urged com­mu­ni­ties to look out for each oth­er.


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