Homicide Bureau joins multi-agency probe into missing Tobago toddler

Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

The Homi­cide Bu­reau is now part of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the dis­ap­pear­ance of two-year-old An­ge­lo To­bias in Good­wood, To­ba­go.

Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der made the an­nounce­ment in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day, adding that the Child Pro­tec­tion Unit is al­so prob­ing the in­ci­dent.

An­ge­lo went miss­ing from his sea­side home around 7.30 pm on Mon­day night, trig­ger­ing a des­per­ate search through­out the com­mu­ni­ty.

The child lived with his moth­er Khal­i­fa To­bias and her boyfriend Shan­non Miller, in a house perched on a small hill less than 100 me­tres from the At­lantic Ocean. A dirt track lit­tered with brown leaves con­nects the home to the rocky sea­side.

De­spite the best ef­forts of vil­lagers, po­lice and pro­fes­sion­al divers who searched the sur­round­ing area and the sea, An­ge­lo re­mains miss­ing.

A labour­er claimed he saw the body in the chop­py sea around 6.30 am on Tues­day, but it slipped be­low the sur­face.

Asked for an up­date on the in­ves­ti­ga­tion dur­ing par­lia­men­tary ques­tions yes­ter­day, Alexan­der said a mul­ti-agency ap­proach is be­ing adopt­ed.

“The im­me­di­ate search for the child con­tin­ues,” he said, adding that the op­er­a­tion in­cludes the Homi­cide Bu­reau, Child Pro­tec­tion Unit, To­ba­go po­lice, the fire ser­vice, the To­ba­go Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency (TEMA) and Coast Guard.

“As the in­ves­ti­ga­tion con­tin­ues, we will be able to up­date mem­bers of the pub­lic,” he said.

In a sup­ple­men­tal ques­tion, Op­po­si­tion MP Mar­vin Gon­za­les asked Alexan­der whether po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing a homi­cide or a miss­ing per­son.

Alexan­der replied that the Homi­cide Bu­reau was in­volved in the probe along­side the Child Pro­tec­tion Unit.

In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Snr Supt Rod­hill Kirk told Guardian Me­dia there was no spe­cif­ic rea­son the mat­ter had at­tract­ed the at­ten­tion of the Homi­cide Bu­reau.

“It is al­ways a mul­ti-agency ap­proach to this in­ci­dent. We don’t have a body, so we don’t know what hap­pened to the child. The child is miss­ing, so we would treat it as such un­til.”

Mean­while, Ma­halia Bac­chus, Asst Supt, To­ba­go Op­er­a­tions, urged any per­son with in­for­ma­tion that may help their in­ves­ti­ga­tion to come for­ward.

She said po­lice have in­ter­viewed the rel­a­tives of An­ge­lo, who made the miss­ing per­son’s re­port, as well as neigh­bours.

She said the pub­lic can call Crime Stop­pers at 211 or the emer­gency 999 num­ber.

Sol­diers called in to help

Af­ter an un­suc­cess­ful search in the sea on Tues­day, au­thor­i­ties called in the army to help search on land yes­ter­day.

Bac­chus said, “The po­lice, we made a de­ci­sion along with the oth­er state agen­cies, we are ex­tend­ing the search a lit­tle bit more with­in the land space around us, to en­sure if the body did wash up it is not some­where on the land and the oth­er ar­eas, bush­es and fo­liage in the back of us here where the house is. We’re just do­ing a more thor­ough search to see if we could find any­thing that might bring some clo­sure to the mat­ter.”

Bac­chus said the po­lice “un­der­stand the pain of the par­ents” who have gone over 48 hours with­out see­ing An­ge­lo.

Asked whether the po­lice are still treat­ing Mon­day’s sight­ing of the body as le­git­i­mate, Bac­chus said the po­lice are work­ing with all avail­able in­for­ma­tion.

She said divers were ex­pect­ed to con­tin­ue their search yes­ter­day, but not­ed a large mass of sar­gas­sum brought by the cur­rents.

A cou­ple hours lat­er, Alvin Dou­glas, di­rec­tor of To­ba­go Ma­rine Safe­ty and Se­cu­ri­ty Ser­vices, con­firmed div­ing was im­pos­si­ble.

He said vis­i­bil­i­ty was al­most ze­ro, and con­di­tions then were haz­ardous to his dive team.

Dou­glas said a boat might be need­ed to check oth­er parts of the coast­line.

“One of the things we no­ticed yes­ter­day is that when the tide changed, the sar­gas­sum left the bay and went around the bend. Un­for­tu­nate­ly, there is no beach, per se, on that side of the is­land. If we are gonna mon­i­tor that area, we gonna have to do it via a ves­sel be­cause there is no way to get down to the rocks.”

He spec­u­lat­ed that if An­ge­lo’s body is still in the wa­ter to­day, it would be float­ing.

Clo­sure need­ed

Mean­while, Wendy Des Vi­gnes, pres­i­dent of the Good­wood Vil­lage Coun­cil, said ten­sions have cooled af­ter Tues­day’s vi­o­lent clash be­tween a rel­a­tive of An­ge­lo and an­oth­er vil­lager.

The al­ter­ca­tion took place af­ter rel­a­tives took um­brage to a com­ment made by the vil­lager to the me­dia.

Des Vi­gnes said the stress of the sit­u­a­tion is telling on An­ge­lo’s fam­i­ly, and they need clo­sure.

Des Vi­gnes, who had crit­i­cised the re­sponse of au­thor­i­ties on Tues­day, said she feels more op­ti­mistic with sol­diers, Coast Guard and Snr Supt Rod­hill Kirk at the scene.

How­ev­er, she added, “That doesn’t mean the child come back. We still ain’t see­ing the child. I dun­no what else they could do to bring clo­sure, that the moth­er heart and the grand­moth­er heart could set­tle and take away the stress from them.”

She said Good­wood re­mains a tight-knit vil­lage and vil­lagers will con­tin­ue to come out to show sup­port to the griev­ing fam­i­ly.

“Every­body lives to­geth­er as one. When any­thing hap­pen, every­body does feel the pain. That is how Good­wood is. Good­wood is love.

“That is why every­body out here try­ing to con­sole with the moth­er and the grand­moth­er.”