RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Teenag­er di­shev­elled and trau­ma­tized af­ter be­ing held cap­tive.

Sev­en­teen-year-old Shamee­ka Mark, who had been miss­ing for a week, was dis­cov­ered ear­ly Mon­day morn­ing at the Shops of Ari­ma.

The teenag­er ap­peared di­shev­elled and trau­ma­tised, prompt­ing her im­me­di­ate trans­fer to the Ari­ma Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal for med­ical treat­ment.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Shamee­ka's moth­er, Savi­ta Mark, re­count­ed their or­deal. Sob­bing with re­lief, Savi­ta said they had re­ceived a call from an uniden­ti­fied man claim­ing to have Shamee­ka in Tamana.

Rush­ing to meet the per­son, Savi­ta said she and her hus­band, Nigel Mark, were di­rect­ed to the Shops of Ari­ma.

"We got there in time to see the man drop­ping her off. We took down the ve­hi­cle num­ber and we tried to speak to him but he drove off," Savi­ta said. Po­lice were not with the cou­ple at the time.

Savi­ta said she want­ed the po­lice to lo­cate the man re­spon­si­ble for Shamee­ka's cap­tiv­i­ty.

"She was be­ing held against her will. She did not even bathe when we found her," Savi­ta cried. She said her daugh­ter need­ed coun­selling and med­ical care.

Shamee­ka, a res­i­dent of De­mer­ara Heights Waller­field in Ari­ma, was last seen board­ing a black sev­en-seater taxi des­tined for San­gre Grande at ap­prox­i­mate­ly 8:30 a.m. on Sep­tem­ber 26.

Her fa­ther had dropped her off at the taxi stand and saw her get­ting in­to the car.

Shamee­ka, a form five stu­dent at Guaico Sec­ondary School, was set to em­bark on a class project in To­ba­go this month. Her moth­er said she was ex­cit­ed for the trip and was not one to run away from home.