Trini man held fleeing Tobago after woman’s murder

Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

A South Oropouche man be­lieved to be flee­ing af­ter al­leged­ly mur­der­ing a woman in To­ba­go was ar­rest­ed as he dis­em­barked the fer­ry in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day.

MTS work­er Neisha Roberts, 40, was found by a rel­a­tive around 7 am in a pool of blood near the bath­room of her Mt St George home. She had been stabbed to death. Po­lice said the 41-year-old sus­pect board­ed the Galleons Pas­sage - the slow­est of the pas­sen­ger fer­ries - yes­ter­day morn­ing head­ing to Trinidad.

How­ev­er, his plans were thwart­ed by po­lice, who were pa­tient­ly await­ing his ar­rival af­ter “con­duct­ing sur­veil­lance and mak­ing dili­gent en­quiries.” He was tak­en in­to cus­tody by Homi­cide Bu­reau of­fi­cers with­out in­ci­dent.

The mur­der, the sev­enth on the is­land this year, has rocked the close-knit com­mu­ni­ty in Mt St George, leav­ing vil­lagers in grief and mourn­ing.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, the rel­a­tive, who lived near­by, went to check on Roberts but found her ly­ing mo­tion­less. The rel­a­tive ini­tial­ly thought she had fall­en but stab wounds were lat­er ob­served about her body. Po­lice were im­me­di­ate­ly con­tact­ed and cor­doned off the crime scene up­on their ar­rival. The in­ci­dent sent shock­waves among the com­mu­ni­ty, where sev­er­al of Roberts’ rel­a­tives re­side a mere stone’s throw away.

While some claim the Trinida­di­an man had a close re­la­tion­ship with Roberts, rel­a­tives in­sist­ed he was just a friend.

“She is a Chris­t­ian woman. Don’t put the wrong thing,” a rel­a­tive said.

How­ev­er, as she spoke with oth­er rel­a­tives, she not­ed the ad­vice by for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley about “choos­ing your man wise­ly.” She ar­gued that some men are very de­cep­tive and know how to hide their true qual­i­ties up­on meet­ing some­one new.

Neigh­bour Shirley Melville-John said the in­ci­dent had left her stunned, as less than 12 hours ear­li­er, Roberts and an­oth­er vil­lager had gone to clean the near­by Sev­enth-day Ad­ven­tist Church.

Rel­a­tive Michele Sargeant not­ed that the sav­agery of Roberts’ death was a stark con­trast to the way she lived. She said she nev­er heard her quar­rel or get in­volved in any bac­cha­nal.

Sargeant said, “I feel very hurt to know the kind of per­son Neisha is. She is very friend­ly, plain-spo­ken. She al­ways in every fam­i­ly thing we have, al­ways there, al­ways sup­port­ive.” She said the com­mu­nal and fam­i­ly vibe in the area felt com­fort­ing to every­one, but this has now been shat­tered. “All ah we live here with one love. Yuh hit one yuh hit all, so we didn’t ex­pect this to hap­pen to Neisha.”

Melville-John not­ed Roberts had built her house less than a year ago and nev­er got to ful­ly en­joy her premis­es. “That is a young woman that is no­body’s busi­ness. She is a qui­et, de­cent young woman.”

Apart from call­ing for swift jus­tice, Melville-John de­mand­ed the sus­pect be giv­en the death penal­ty if found guilty. “I am so glad for he to get to (be ar­rest­ed). Jail him and throw away the key - and I want them to bring back the hang­man. I want them to bring back the hang­man be­cause all ah them eat­ing tax­pay­ers’ mon­ey. Is we mon­ey they eat­ing. So, we need to get rid ah them.”

Pri­or to the sus­pect’s ar­rest, she had called for him to sur­ren­der to the po­lice.

“Give up him­self. Don’t run. You do your act, serve your time. Let him come and give up, let him ain’t hide.” She lament­ed that the com­mu­ni­ty was not ac­cus­tomed to this lev­el of vi­o­lence and ex­pressed con­cern for Roberts’ moth­er, who was al­ready ail­ing. “What it is go­ing on in this vil­lage? What it is go­ing on in To­ba­go? It is very sad.”

Mean­while, area rep­re­sen­ta­tive Megan Mor­ri­son told Guardian Me­dia she was heart­bro­ken, as she knew Roberts very well.

As she ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly, Mor­ri­son added, “There are no words that can ad­e­quate­ly ease the pain of los­ing a life, but please know our en­tire com­mu­ni­ty stands with you in your time of grief.”

Po­lice say in­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing.