JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Monday, July 14, 2025

Women in shallow grave were strangled and smothered to death, autopsy finds

by

Anna-Lisa Paul
16 days ago
20250628
Ramsaran Trace Extension, one of the narrow roadways leading to the area where the bodies were discovered.

Ramsaran Trace Extension, one of the narrow roadways leading to the area where the bodies were discovered.

SHASTRI BOODAN

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Au­top­sies on the bod­ies of two His­pan­ic women found in a shal­low grave in cen­tral Trinidad on Wednes­day night, have list­ed the of­fi­cial cause of death as man­u­al stran­gu­la­tion and as­phyx­ia due to smoth­er­ing.

The vic­tims, both be­lieved to be in their 20s, were found around 11.30 pm in an agri­cul­tur­al plot at Ram­saran Trace, War­ren Road, Cunu­pia.

Act­ing on in­for­ma­tion, of­fi­cers from the Na­tion­al Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Unit (NSOU) led by ACP Crime, Richard Smith went to the lo­ca­tion and found a dis­turbed area ap­prox­i­mate­ly 42 feet from the road­way.

Up­on in­ves­ti­gat­ing, of­fi­cers found the bod­ies of the two women ly­ing be­side each oth­er in a shal­low grave es­ti­mat­ed to be about four feet deep. The heads of both women had been bub­ble-wrapped and one of them had her hands bound.

An ap­peal by the po­lice for peo­ple from the Span­ish-speak­ing mi­grant com­mu­ni­ty to as­sist in iden­ti­fy­ing the vic­tims has so far been fu­tile.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors had said jew­ellery found on the bod­ies would be used to as­sist with iden­ti­fi­ca­tion but fol­low­ing the au­top­sies, pic­tures of the vic­tims are ex­pect­ed to be pub­lished in the hope that per­sons will come for­ward.

Smith yes­ter­day said the women suf­fered great­ly.

“They would have choked them and then wrapped the plas­tic around their neck and smoth­ered them to death. It would have been painful and fright­en­ing for them,” he said.

Smith added, “While we will in­ves­ti­gate to the best of our abil­i­ty, their sta­tus at this time will not have an im­pact in de­ter­min­ing how the po­lice do their jobs in bring­ing those re­spon­si­ble, to ac­count for their heinous crime.”

He said the in­ves­ti­ga­tions were at a sen­si­tive stage.

“This type and style of killing is quite new to us, with the wrap­ping of the head and even smoth­er­ing them to death,” he ad­mit­ted.

Re­call­ing how he felt as he looked at the vic­tims in the shal­low grave, Smith said couldn’t help but won­der about the per­sons re­spon­si­ble for their deaths.

“While they are hu­man they couldn’t have an ounce of hu­man­i­ty in them as they would have watched these women take their last breath. It is quite in­hu­mane and for this pur­pose, it would be safe to say they are an­i­mals,” he said.

Smith said the area where the bod­ies were found com­prised pri­mar­i­ly of farm lands and there were no hous­es near­by.

“It is quite con­ducive for crim­i­nals who want to com­mit these kinds of acts and dump bod­ies in these ar­eas.

“A lot of ve­hi­cles that were stolen have been re­cov­ered in ar­eas like these be­cause it is un­der­pop­u­lat­ed,” he said

Smith said be­tween 2017 and 2020, when he was as­signed to the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion, there were sev­er­al cas­es of bod­ies be­ing dumped, which re­sult­ed in the po­lice in­creas­ing pa­trols.

“We have spo­ken to the ex­ec­u­tive of the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion and they are in fact go­ing to be in­creas­ing pa­trols in those ar­eas, es­pe­cial­ly at Carlsen Field and War­ren Road,” he said.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored