An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

It’s been 11 years since Glen­da Charles-Har­ris dis­ap­peared.

While her fam­i­ly was forced to ad­just to her ab­sence, the en­su­ing years have not dulled the pain and loss as they con­tin­ue to ques­tion what re­al­ly hap­pened to her.

Charles-Har­ris, who was 78-years-old at the time, was head of the En­vi­ron­men­tal Stud­ies De­part­ment at the Col­lege of Sci­ence, Tech­nol­o­gy and Ap­plied Arts of T&T (Costaatt) City Cam­pus in Port-of-Spain.

She was re­port­ed miss­ing on Ju­ly 27, 2015, and her car was found days lat­er near a teak field in Princes Town.

Charles-Har­ris lived at Blue Range, Diego Mar­tin.

She was last seen around 5.30 pm at the Tru Valu Su­per­mar­ket, Diego Mar­tin, clad in a pair of white pants and a flo­ral top.

Al­though her chil­dren rushed back to Trinidad when Charles-Har­ris dis­ap­peared, they, too, were forced to re­turn to their lives abroad weary and sad­dened, but nev­er giv­ing up hope that she would be found alive.

Charles-Har­ris’ daugh­ter, He­len Bergen­dahl, has con­tin­ued to beg for clo­sure from lo­cal au­thor­i­ties.

In an in­ter­view with the Sun­day Guardian from Swe­den, she lament­ed, “Eleven years have now passed and we still have no an­swers or any clues as to what may have hap­pened.”

Re­new­ing the call for any in­for­ma­tion, she ap­pealed to the pub­lic, “Who were will­ing to come for­ward with any piece of in­for­ma­tion, no mat­ter how small it might be, for us to be able to find out what hap­pened to our moth­er.”

She shared a can­did in­sight in­to how the dis­ap­pear­ance had im­pact­ed their lives.

“It has been a very dev­as­tat­ing sit­u­a­tion for the whole fam­i­ly and it is some­thing we will nev­er re­cov­er from,” she said in a voice note, adding, “It cuts you quite deep when a loved one is tak­en from you in the fash­ion that our moth­er was tak­en from us.”

Hope­ful the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) had not turned their backs on the in­ves­ti­ga­tion, Bergen­dahl ac­knowl­edged that with­out any in­for­ma­tion, it would be dif­fi­cult to pro­ceed.

But she urged, “Some­one has to have seen, heard or knows what hap­pened.”

She is hold­ing firm to the be­lief that “Peo­ple have a ten­den­cy of not be­ing able to stay qui­et and that some­body knows some­thing.”

In­di­cat­ing the fam­i­ly on­ly want­ed to lay Charles-Har­ris to rest and al­so find peace them­selves, Bergen­dahl said they, too, just want­ed to “move on from this amaz­ing­ly trag­ic in­ci­dent.”

In ex­am­in­ing how the lo­cal crim­i­nal land­scape has evolved be­tween 2015 to present, she said, “T&T has be­come a na­tion where both chil­dren and women are not safe.

“There are trag­ic in­ci­dents hap­pen­ing every sin­gle day and I think it is quite im­por­tant that the na­tion starts putting in re­sources to keep chil­dren and women safe.”

She con­tin­ued, “My moth­er is one in many cas­es where vi­o­lence has played a role, and the per­son has van­ished.”

She end­ed, “I am beg­ging for some­one to please take this se­ri­ous­ly.”

Bergen­dahl said they were ready to as­sist the TTPS and any oth­er agency that could breathe some life back in­to this cold case.