Relatives of hit and run accident victim Leonora Patrick are calling on Police Commissioner Gary Griffith for justice.
Since their sister’s decomposed body was found on July 4 along the Auchenskeoch Buccoo Road in Carnbee, the family has been asking God to give them justice in their prayers.
Omega Patrick, Leonora’s sister, said while they wait for their prayers to be answered, they feel they should make a public appeal for Griffith to take “serious interest” in their sister’s case.
Leonora was missing on July 3 and was found the following day. Her body was found in a drain at the side of the road, having apparently been moved there after being hit on the roadway. Saying it appeared Leonora was “mowed down like a cow,” Omega said, “No one should die like that. All her bones were broken, you know like when you knock down a cow on the road and roll over it several times.”
The autopsy report, which was done by pathologist Dr Eslyn McDonald-Burris, revealed the cause of death was “multiple internal and body injuries and haemorrhage due to road traffic trauma.”
“And why did they have to push the body under the culvert and leave it to decompose? Why not take her to the hospital, why leave her to die like that?” she cried, holding her belly.
She added: “No one cares to know about our sister, only reporting the case as though other people are the victim when we are the real victims.”
The family blamed the media for making their sister “less than human.”
“The media ignoring our sister’s death because of the status of the other person and his status overshadowing her death,” one of Leonora’s other sisters, who does not want to be named because of her job, said.
“Her name is L-E-O-N-O-R-A, so they spelling her name wrong, and they saying she was “mad and own-way and that is not the truth,” another sister, who also did not want to be named, told Tobago Today.
“The matter is in God’s hand.”
The family said when they discovered Leonora was missing on the morning of July 2 they began calling her friends and searched for her until 3 am.
“She got a phone call from a man friend and we thought she was with him, but then we realised he was still at her home after he came the day before with all his stuff saying he wanted a place to live,” Omega said.
The sister said when they got the call on July 4 that the body found on Auchenskeoch Road might be their sister’s, they began bawling.
“What people do not know is that she was a kind person who loved her family and took care of her nieces and nephews and washed and ironed for certain people. She is a human being.”
They are now asking for Griffith’s direct involvement in the case.
“We want her murderers to be brought to justice,” the family said.
On September 30, police reported that a national athlete had been held in connection with the case in Barataria. They brought him to Tobago for questioning but he was subsequently released.
Hours after this, national track star Machel Cedenio tweeted that he had been questioned and released without charge in the case. He chastised people in the media and on social media who had been quick to malign him.
Tobago police confirmed yesterday that the Director of Public Prosecutions has now taken an interest in the case and will advise them going forward.