The gruesome discovery of two men, found dismembered in a stream in Cunupia on Monday, was yet more confirmation that Trinidad and Tobago is now being stalked by a group of killers who are seemingly operating under the guise that they will never pay for their crimes.
How else can one describe the mindset of the individual/individuals who would have carried out such an act? Indeed, the persons involved in this heinous crime not only wanted to kill their victims but also seemed bent on doing so in the most excruciating manner.
Most disconcertingly as well, was the fact that had a citizen not stumbled upon the body of one of the victims, it was quite possible the men would not have been discovered for quite some time or not at all, since the aqua life in the habitat had already begun feeding on the remains.
Either way, to law-abiding citizens, it marked yet another grisly turn in the trend of killings in this country. This is because this was the third time in under two months that such a crime had been committed.
On September 22, police discovered a dismembered body burnt beyond recognition on an empty lot at Bushe Street, Curepe. Days later, on October 2, Dragon Boat enthusiasts found another dismembered body floating off Williams Bay in Chaguaramas. Then came Monday’s finding, in which a man going to look for flowers to perform prayers found not one but two dismembered bodies.
The police will now try to determine what occurred in this matter, but it is likely that they will have to depend on information from the public to do so. That, in today’s climate of crime in T&T, is easier said than done.
Indeed, in the context of the continuing gang violence in this country, it is important to note that the dismemberment of victims is a trademark of Latin American gangs who use it to send a message to their rivals or the families of the victims.
While this newspaper hopes it is not so, it is conceivable that citizens could now possibly be seeing the spinoff of local gangs forming links with foreign cohorts and carrying out their deadly codes of behaviour on the T&T landscape. Worse yet, it could also be clusters of foreign gangs operating within our shores. The other option, of course, would be that there is a serial killer at large but neither of these scenarios give law-abiding citizens any comfort at this point.
This situation comes even as the country was reeling from the killing of nine-year-old Jomol Modeste at a playground in Chaguanas over the weekend, in another scenario in which criminals acted with no concern for innocent bystanders as they sought to take out those they were hunting.
Needless to say, citizens have seen so much bloodletting this year across the country that it is a frightening scenario. The TTPS continues to attempt to convince society that they are doing all they can to deter criminals. However, based on the events of the past 48 hours, we dare say no individual can take the words of our law enforcement officers at face value, as T&T now seems in a very dark place where murders are concerned.