Senior Investigative Reporter
shaliza.hassanali@guardian.co.tt
For nearly six years, Candice Riley has been waiting for justice after tragically losing her daughter, Ashanti Riley, allegedly at the hands of a PH taxi driver.
Now, her call for justice is being renewed following the recent murder of 12-year-old Mercedez Layne, whose life ended reportedly under similar circumstances.
“When will the killings end? Mercedez didn’t deserve to die the way she did. Another innocent life gone too soon,” Riley said, her voice choked with emotion during an interview with Guardian Media last Wednesday.
Riley admitted that Mercedez’s killing had reopened the old wounds of her heartbreaking loss.
Ashanti, 18, was abducted when she boarded a PH taxi near her Sunshine Avenue, San Juan, home on November 29, 2020.
Five days later, her decomposing body was found in a shallow stream in Santa Cruz.
Her murder prompted a nationwide outcry to end violence against women and girls.
Luciano Quash was charged with Ashanti’s murder.
Upon hearing that Mercedez’s partially nude body was found last Sunday, Riley, 44, said it tore her heart to pieces.
“It brought back a lot of memories of Ashanti because when they found her, she was nude. Her clothes were on the side of her in the river.”
Riley said she would go to her grave knowing that her daughter’s body was violated.
Ashanti was due to sit her CXC examinations in a few months and had plans to pursue tertiary education.
With each passing day, Riley said she thinks of her daughter, who would have been 24 if alive.
For Riley, some days are better than others.
“What I miss most about Ashanti is her presence…her smile, voice and laughter. This pain I have of losing my child can never go away.”
Faced with the painful reality of having to travel the route where Ashanti was murdered, Riley stopped using PH cars and began to walk to and from home.
“I was scared to travel in these cars. They need to be regulated,” Riley said.
She has since moved out of the community with her two children. Riley now lives in El Dorado.
“Living there was too much.”
As Riley approaches the sixth anniversary of Ashanti’s murder, she fears that justice for her daughter is taking too long.
“That is my problem. It’s going to be six years... and yet still nothing. I don’t know what they are waiting for. Sometimes, family members of the victims die before getting justice.”
She said there have also been instances of court cases collapsing due to procedural errors and lack of evidence, raising concerns about the efficiency and accountability of the country’s justice system.
When a case crumbles, she said, the accused walks free, and the victim’s families are faced with a lifetime of grief and stress.
“You can’t give people wrong for taking justice in their own hands, you know. They rather sit down in jail because when you leave it for all yuh to do, all yuh fail we as a people.”
The grieving mother said all she wants is justice for Ashanti.
“I am not going to get Ashanti back. Justice is all I could count on.”
Riley said she had no information about Ashanti’s court case.
In 2022, Riley said Quash had been committed to stand trial for Ashanti’s murder.
Riley said the State never informed her that Ashanti’s case had been moved to the High Court for trial, which she learned through social media.
“If the trial started, they never called to say so.”
Riley said it was time to resume hangings in the country to send a message to criminals who have been creating havoc and mayhem for law-abiding citizens.
“There are too many brutal killings.”
Women, girls who died or disappeared in PH taxis
The issue of uncontrolled PH taxis has once again surged into the spotlight following the murder of Mercedez Layne.
Last Thursday, Richard Renalis, who was charged with the child’s murder, was denied bail.
The Standard Four student of St Francis Erin RC School was reported missing on June 6 after a relative placed the girl in a PH car and asked the male driver to drop her off at her Los Iros Road home, which was less than five minutes away.
The little girl never made it home.
The following day, an oil company worker found her body, which was partially nude, near a well off Carapal Road.
An autopsy confirmed she had been beaten to death.
Over the years, police have investigated incidents of women and girls being robbed, raped, beaten and murdered after entering PH taxis.
Police have also probed cases of women and girls who travelled in PH cars and taxis and later went missing.
Among the victims are:
Ashanti Riley, 18, who disappeared on November 29, 2020.
She was last seen entering a PH taxi near her San Juan home to visit her grandmother in Cocorite.
Five days later, Riley’s body was found in a shallow river in Upper La Canoa, Santa Cruz.
An autopsy showed she had been stabbed and beaten.
After Riley’s murder, then prime minister Dr Keith Rowley mandated his government to formulate laws to regulate PH drivers.
The hue and cry from the public led then-attorney general Faris Al-Rawi to inform the nation that there was extensive progress on proposed laws to regulate PH and H taxis, maxi taxis, and the Public Transport Service Corporation’s (PTSC) network.
Andrea Bharatt, 23, a court clerk, went missing after getting into a taxi in Arima. It occurred soon after Riley’s murder.
It was later discovered that the car Bharatt entered on January 29, 2021, carried false H licence plates and was operating from a legitimate taxi stand.
Days later, Bharatt’s decomposing body was found down a precipice at the Heights of Aripo, sparking outrage across the country.
A private autopsy revealed that she died from blunt force trauma injuries to the head.
Bharatt’s murder caused citizens to stage candlelight vigils on the streets as they called for the killer/s to be brought to justice.
Negus George, 24, of Gooding Trace, Malabar, Arima, was charged with Bharatt’s murder.
Avenella Abraham, 38, of Lange Park, Chaguanas, was shot in the head and thrown from a car along Maraj Street, Montrose, last November.
Keithisha Cudjoe, 21, an attendant at a gas station in El Socorro, was supposedly dropped off in Port-of-Spain on January 24, 2022, after liming with friends in Belmont.
A driver had been organised to transport Cudjoe in the city.
The next time Cudjoe was seen was when her body was found in the Heights of Aripo.
Cudjoe, a mother of one, died of blunt-force trauma to the head, an autopsy revealed.
Susan Phagoo, a clerk at Plipdeco House, walked out of her McLeod Street, Freeport, home on March 5, 2009, to take a taxi to Chaguanas to meet friends who were going down the Islands.
Investigators believed the 28-year-old woman was murdered the same day she left home.
Phagoo’s body was found wrapped in a plastic bag near the Waterloo Cremation Site one day later.
Phagoo died when her head was bashed with a blunt object.
Devika Lalman, 15, travelled from her Las Lomas home to Chaguanas on December 30, 2008.
She was last seen waiting for a PH taxi to get home.
After four days of searches, Lalman’s battered body was found in a rice field at Warrenville, Caroni.
An autopsy revealed she had been raped, had her throat slit and was beaten to death.
Following police investigations, Silas Mack, a PH driver from Cunupia, was charged with Lalman and Durity’s murders.
Gail Durity, 19, was last seen by her family on May 31, 2008.
She had a squabble with her boyfriend and left her Dass Trace, Enterprise, home in a hired PH taxi.
The following day, the teenager’s nude body was discovered on a coconut plantation in Manzanilla.
Durity had been bound and beaten.
Oma Nanan’s disappearance on October 3, 1991, is still a mystery 35 years later.
Nanan, who was 11 years old and a Form One student of Curepe Junior Secondary School, was last seen entering a 120 Y car in front of her home on Talparo Main Road, Brazil, which then sped off.
After seven years of searching without success, police closed Nanan’s case.
Abigail Joseph, 29, was last seen on September 2, 2008, boarding a Cascade taxi after dropping off her eight-year-old son, Nathaniel, at school.
Shindlar Cuffy, 16, entered a vehicle on the Southern Main Road in Claxton Bay to go to her Marabella North Secondary School on November 28, 2018.
That was the last day she was seen.
Grace Esther Roberts, an aspiring beautician, disappeared on July 9, 2020, after entering a taxi to get to her Diego Martin home.
Leah Lammy, who was just eight years old, got into a car on February 10, 2009, after leaving Edinburgh Government Primary School to get to her Tom Street, Longdenville, home.
She was never seen again.
Elisha Rooplal, 47, was last seen entering a Marabella taxi to go to her workplace in San Fernando on March 1, 2019.
Riana Parag, 18, a business management student of Neilson Street, Longdenville, went to buy Christmas presents at a flea market in Chaguanas on December 16, 2008.
After shopping, Parag stood near the Chaguanas overpass, waiting for transportation to get home.
Then she vanished.
Sally Lobai, 26, a Piarco resident, disappeared on February 11, 2009, after a job interview in Longdenville.
The last contact relatives had with Lobai was a phone call to her boyfriend, who reported that she was in a taxi.
PH driver Silas Mack, who had eight charges of murder, kidnapping, rape and robbery allegedly committed between February and December 2008, was charged with kidnapping Parag, Lammy and Lobai, who are still missing.
PH driver: The actions of one should not define all
From Arouca to Tunapuna, more than half a dozen illegal PH taxi stands are visible to police and the public traversing the Priority Bus Route (PBR).
Yet despite their illegal operations, these PH drivers continue to ply their trade without being touched.
One of the PH stands is Oropune/Piarco Airport at Thomas Street, Arouca, which is never short of cars and passengers.
PH drivers also hustle passengers at Cane Farm Junction, Red Hill in D’Abadie, Bon Air Junction, Five Rivers Junction and opposite the Tunapuna Market.
Last Wednesday, when Guardian Media visited the Oropune/Piarco Airport stand around 10.15 am, outside peak hours, 18 private cars were waiting to pick up passengers.
PH driver Jason Salandy was one of them.
Surrounded by fellow drivers, Salandy boasted that they serve 2,000 passengers daily.
“We provide a service to several communities.”
More than 30 PH drivers work the route, some for as many as 18 hours a day.
Many of the drivers admitted that they turned to PH full-time after losing their jobs in URP and CEPEP.
“We know it’s illegal, but it’s still better than picking up a gun and robbing people,” muttered one driver.
On the murder of Mercedez, Salandy said the actions of one PH driver should not define all of them.
“We want people on this stand to trust us. There have been no robberies…no crime here.”
Salandy said they had no problem being regulated by the Government, “so we don’t have to study the police. We are willing to go the full distance.”
He said they ensure that elderly passengers and schoolchildren are dropped off safely.
“We does look out for everybody...all our passengers.”
He said H taxis used to charge passengers $20 to go to Oropune Gardens.
Since they came on the scene, Oropune passengers pay $7, saving $13 a trip.
At Cane Farm Junction, both PH and H taxi drivers were seen soliciting passengers who wanted to be transported to Trincity and East Gates malls.
A taxi driver who requested anonymity said the PH taxi drivers have outnumbered them.
“There are so many of them pulling ‘bull’ (a transport term used by taxi drivers) now, sometimes it’s hard to get three good trips for the day,” the driver said.
The driver said that when they call the Arouca Police Station to complain about PH taxi drivers, their complaints are ignored.
“So this problem has been getting out of control with no enforcement. It has been going on for years. We are feeling the pressure.”
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said Cabinet is considering measures aimed at improving public transportation services and reducing reliance on unregulated PH taxi operators following growing public concern about the murder of Mercedez.
The Prime Minister acknowledged the challenges law enforcement faces in tackling illegal PH taxi operators, noting that police often struggle to secure evidence against offenders.
“The police have tried to crack down on illegal PH drivers but the passengers never admit they are paying the driver. They say they are getting a free ride or the driver is a friend or family member, so the police have difficulty laying charges,” Persad-Bissessar said.
2019 study found PH taxis serve 27,000 commuters along the East-West corridor
A University of the West Indies (UWI) survey has found that 27,000 commuters along the East-West corridor travel with PH taxi drivers daily.
This figure was based on a 2019 survey of 300,000 households that used three modes of transport: maxi taxis, Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) buses and PH taxis in the East-West corridor every day.
On Wednesday, Dr Trevor Townsend, who retired as a senior lecturer in transportation engineering in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at UWI, provided Guardian Media with a breakdown of the survey during an interview.
“From that survey, it showed that in terms of what mode they use for the trip, PH carries about nine per cent of the trips. Nine per cent would be about 27,000 (commuters).”
Townsend said this figure was not insignificant.
“Especially when you consider what we call the last and first mile for many communities, which is basically from where you live or close to where you live to the main road, as the case may be.”
The survey showed that maxi taxis transported 13 per cent of commuters, or 39,000 commuters daily, while two per cent, or 6,000 passengers, used PTSC’s service.
Townsend estimated that these figures would have increased by three per cent each year across all modes of transport.
While many people have argued that PH is necessary, Townsend pointed out that it has been operating illegally.
“There is a law. Why isn’t the law being enforced?”
The traffic expert said police, traffic wardens and licensing officers can charge PH drivers for plying their illegal trade.
In Port-of-Spain, he claimed PH drivers solicit passengers in full view of traffic wardens without being ticketed.
“But as far as I am aware, in my opinion, you may disagree, I see no evidence of any significant enforcement of the law. I think you and I know why it is not being done.”
He said what is required is an organised public transport system.
If this is not done, he said, PH taxi drivers will continue to flourish.
“We need to have a transit authority that is responsible for managing, planning and administering the public transport sector, including the provision of subsidies for those who need it.”
Townsend said part of the problem is that decision-makers are not public transport users.
A motor car registered for private use is prohibited by law from providing rides in exchange for money.
Section 8 of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic (MVRT) Regulations states that “no person shall use a motor vehicle for a purpose other than that for which it is registered.”
As such, the use of a privately registered motor vehicle for hire or reward is an offence in T&T.
According to the MVRT (Enforcement and Administration) Act, failure to comply with the regulation attracts a fixed penalty of $750.
Many commuters have argued that PH taxis play a crucial role in T&T’s transportation system, especially in rural areas that are not serviced by public transportation or registered taxis.
Townsend admitted that safety in public transport is an international problem.
“But our situation is exacerbated when part of what is supplying that public transport is totally illegal, unregulated and uncontrolled.”
