分类： society

Nine days after two-year-old Angelo Tobias Plaza was reported missing from his home in the coastal Tobago village of Goodwood, the high-profile investigation has taken a devastating, unexpected turn: one of seven detained suspects has confessed to strangling the toddler and discarding his body in the waters off Goodwood Bay.

The toddler was first reported missing from his Goodwood residence on the night of May 11. In the week following his disappearance, a multi-team search effort involving local police, the volunteer Hunters Search and Rescue Team (HSRT), and other emergency responders scoured a wide swath of terrain, from Goodwood Bay to the Studley Park Landfill and the Pig Farm Road corridor in nearby Goldsborough. It was not until day nine of the search that investigators received a break in the case: new critical intelligence that led them back to Goodwood Bay, and ultimately prompted the confession from one of the seven people already in custody.

According to official statements, the suspect told interrogators he killed Angelo by strangulation before disposing of the child’s body in Goodwood Bay. Investigators had planned to escort the suspect back to Goodwood village to map out key locations connected to the crime, but the detainee reported feeling ill mid-process, and was transported to the Accident and Emergency Department at Scarborough General Hospital for medical evaluation yesterday afternoon.

Acting on the details provided in the confession, law enforcement and search teams have now shifted their operations to focus on stretches of Tobago’s northern coastline and adjacent offshore waters. As of yesterday, three women and four men remain in police custody in connection with the case. Investigators also brought Angelo’s mother, Kalifa Tobias, back to her Cambridge Trace home yesterday. Dressed in a white crime scene suit and accompanied by a heavy police escort including plainclothes officers, Tobias walked the property with investigators and pointed out specific areas of interest before being transported back to a police vehicle for departure.

Separately, search teams followed up on another tip this week after a Pig Farm Road resident reported spotting a suspicious black bag at the bottom of a local precipice. HSRT leader Vallence Rambharat told reporters that rescue teams used specialized ropes to descend to the site to retrieve the bag, but confirmed its contents had no connection to the Angelo investigation. As of last night, the toddler’s body had not yet been recovered.

In an official statement released earlier yesterday, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) acknowledged the investigation had reached a “critical turn.” Assistant Commissioner of Police Rishi Singh noted that the investigative team continues to work diligently and with professional rigor to reach a “clear and definitive outcome” for the case. The TTPS added that the ongoing probe remains a sensitive matter, and all enquiries are being conducted fairly, with full respect for the constitutional rights of every individual involved in the case. The investigation draws on resources from multiple specialized units across the TTPS, including the Special Victims Department, Tobago Division Gang Unit, Homicide Bureau of Investigations, Tobago Divisional Task Force, Canine Unit, and Criminal Records Office, with additional logistical support from the Tobago Emergency Management Agency and the HSRT. Police have renewed a public appeal for anyone with information about Angelo’s whereabouts to come forward, contacting the Scarborough Police Station, the national 555 emergency line, 800-TIPS, or Tobago 211.

For the tight-knit community of Goodwood, the news of the confession has brought a wave of grief and unanswered questions, with residents gathering for nightly prayer vigils at Goodwood Bay. Local Pembroke resident Chandra Jerry broke down in tears during an interview yesterday, saying the prolonged wait for answers has left her exhausted. “I am emotional at the moment. I want to see the baby come out…so that I could feel good in my spirit. It’s getting tiring. I’m getting very weak at this point because we really want answers to this, and the only answer is to see the baby alive or dead to give us comfort,” Jerry said. “So it is a very sad moment for us; it’s day nine and no answers. I am fed up. I want the authorities to work faster, (he) confess, yes, but where is the baby? That’s what we want to know now. I believe in the power of prayer. God is working and prayer is the only solution.”

Eighty-seven-year-old Goodwood resident Agnes Alleyne, who told reporters she had never witnessed such a tragedy in her lifetime, said the village will need significant time to process and heal from the shock. “I am feeling sad with the situation. The child is a very, very nice child, but I don’t know what happened,” Alleyne said. “They could heal but it will take some time, it will take some time. It’s a very sad situation right now because I have never seen such a thing in my life, never ever. It hurt me. I see my food… I cannot even eat my food. When I heard that this boy confess, it hurt me very much… Why did they not bring that child and give me, I would have adopted the child.”

A fatal police shooting in the Trinidad and Tobago community of Cunupia has sparked public dispute and calls for accountability, after 35-year-old Abdullah Joseph was killed by officers responding to a reported break-in early Thursday morning.

According to an official statement from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), the incident unfolded shortly after 4:30 a.m., when law enforcement received a tip that an unidentified man had accessed the property of a local family who were currently out of the country. Teams from the Central Division Task Force and the Cunupia Police Station were dispatched immediately to the scene. Upon arrival, officers reported hearing loud crashing noises coming from inside the vacant residence.

When officers entered the home to investigate, the TTPS statement claims they were confronted by a mixed-race man brandishing what appeared to be a firearm, who advanced toward them. Facing what they assessed as immediate, life-threatening danger, officers followed departmental Use of Force Policy and opened fire on the suspect, striking him. Joseph was quickly rushed to the Chaguanas Health Facility for emergency care, but he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

Following the incident, Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro publicly praised the responding officers for their rapid action, and issued a sharp warning to individuals engaging in property crime across the nation. “Let this incident serve as an unmistakable warning to anyone who believes they can terrorise communities or violate the sanctity of people’s homes,” Guevarro said. “If you choose to arm yourselves, invade the homes of others, and confront law enforcement, you will face the full weight of the TTPS.” He added that officers would continue to act decisively, within the law, and without hesitation to protect residents’ lives, property, and community safety across Trinidad and Tobago, emphasizing that home invasions are premeditated violent acts that will not be tolerated.

But Joseph’s family, who live just a short distance from the shooting scene in Petersville, Cunupia, have pushed back sharply against the police narrative, demanding a full, independent investigation into the killing. Speaking on condition of anonymity, relatives acknowledged that Joseph had a history of petty theft, but insisted he never owned or carried a firearm of any kind. “Having a gun is out of the book for he (Joseph). I never know him to have a gun,” one relative told local outlet the Express.

Relatives explained that Joseph had a pattern of entering abandoned or unoccupied homes in the area to sleep, and said this was the first time he had targeted an occupied residence. The family only learned of the shooting around 5:30 a.m., when neighbors alerted them to the incident a few homes away from their property. According to the relatives, neighbors reported hearing Joseph identify himself to officers before between five and seven gunshots were fired. Another relative criticized the use of lethal force, arguing that “They did not have to shoot to kill him. They could have shot him in the leg and held him. Yes, he was a known offender, but more for petty thief, and he didn’t have a weapon.” When they visited the scene after the shooting, the family said they found footprints on the interior wall, which they believe prove Joseph was attempting to flee the property rather than confront officers when he was shot.

The caretaker of the targeted home, who spoke to the Express on the record, confirmed that Joseph had been caught trespassing on the property multiple times in the past, and had been warned repeatedly to stay away. He added that Joseph would frequently leave discarded garbage strewn across the yard during these intrusions. The caretaker described the shooting as a tragic outcome, and confirmed no members of the home’s owning family were present at the time of the incident, matching the initial police report. He told reporters he believes Joseph climbed onto the home’s roof using a makeshift step stool, and gained entry through a loose ceiling panel, an account supported by reporters’ observations of displaced ceiling tiles and footprints on the wall and window molding.

When the caretaker arrived at the property around 8:30 a.m., he said Joseph’s body had already been removed by authorities. He told reporters he found ransacked drawers and blood stains in the home’s corridor, but as of Thursday, it remained unclear whether any items were stolen from the residence.

A deadly threat targeting a serving prison officer at a Caribbean correctional facility has sparked renewed calls for improved workplace safety, with the nation’s top prison officers’ union demanding swift and serious action to protect frontline staff.

Gerard Gordon, president of the Prison Officers’ Association (POA), has voiced deep alarm over the recent incident at Teteron Barracks’ Tetron Holding Facility in Chaguaramas, where an inmate allegedly made an explicit death threat against an on-duty officer. The union leader emphasized that threats to correctional staff can never be dismissed as trivial, highlighting the already high-stakes, high-pressure environment that prison officers navigate daily to uphold public safety and institutional order.

Details of the incident, confirmed by local law enforcement, show that the 34-year-old officer, a resident of Princes Town, was carrying out routine duties around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday—distributing meals to the inmate population and conducting a scheduled medication check—when the 46-year-old inmate delivered the threat. According to the official report, the inmate told the officer he would kill him once the inmate was released from custody.

The accused offender has been held in custody since 2017, when he and a co-accused were charged with the 2014 murder of a man in Guyaguayare. Following the confrontation, the threatened officer first notified his senior command of the incident before formally filing a police report at the Carenage Police Station just after 11 a.m. on Sunday. Active investigations into the threat are currently ongoing, led by W/Cpl De Gazon.

Gordon stressed that the incident is far from an isolated outburst, and instead serves as a constant reminder of the tangible, life-altering risks that correctional officers face every time they report for work. The POA, he confirmed, stands unwaveringly in support of the targeted officer and all correctional staff across the country, who continue to carry out their professional duties despite widespread and well-documented hazards in the sector.

In a formal statement, the union is calling on relevant authorities to implement all necessary protective measures to safeguard prison officers working across the nation’s correctional system, and to ensure that all incidents of violence and threats against staff are addressed with the urgency and gravity they deserve.

A small, tight-knit community in Las Lomas is grappling with shock and grief after the body of a well-loved local resident was recovered by law enforcement on Wednesday morning, one and a half days after he placed an emergency call reporting he had been attacked in a remote cocoa field.

Adrian Peter Duff, 35-year-old unmarried man with no children who lived with epilepsy, told responding dispatchers he had sustained severe life-threatening injuries that left him trapped in the field, unable to move to safety. He provided directions to a wooded zone off Esperanza Trace and shared the contact number of a close friend before the call cut off abruptly.

Shortly after receiving the emergency call, local police launched a large-scale search operation joined by dozens of Duff’s friends and family members, who combed the dense, remote terrain for any sign of the missing man. On Tuesday, search teams made the first grim discoveries: Duff’s bicycle, burned beyond recognition, hidden not far from a trail of blood leading along a local riverbank. It was not until Wednesday, however, that searchers located Duff’s remains deep in the forested off Esperanza Trace.

As of Wednesday, investigators have not identified a clear motive for the killing, leaving both law enforcement and the community grasping for answers. Family members say they are reeling from the brutal discovery, and are pushing for a full, transparent investigation into the attack.

A relative of Duff, speaking on condition of privacy, shared that the 35-year-old had no known enemies and was widely adored across the local area. “He is a cool person, a lovable person. Nobody would have had reason to attack him or anything. He never spoke about anything threatening him or anything like that,” she said. She added that Duff worked as a day laborer, frequently taking on odd jobs for community members, and that he found genuine joy in helping others. “It is confusing that somebody did this,” she said.

Before he placed the 999 emergency call, Duff had sent a call-me request to one of his relatives. By the time the relative attempted to return the contact, Duff’s phone had already been powered off, the relative confirmed. She described the emotional rollercoaster of the 36-hour search: after finding the burned bicycle and blood trail on Tuesday, she said, she lost all hope that Duff would be found alive. “When we saw blood and everything yesterday (Tuesday), I lost hope. But then this morning I told myself that won’t be him, and I had hope again. But when I saw his body today (Wednesday), I broke down,” she said.

The relative also spoke to the broader crisis of violent crime plaguing the country, saying the attack had brought that crisis home for her family. “It is terrible. It’s out of hand. Now that it has hit home, it is a form of trauma for us, too,” she added.

Duff, who often wandered the area’s forested zones to collect wild nuts and fruits, had no dependents, the family confirmed. As of this week, the national murder toll stands at 139, a slight drop from the 150 recorded during the same period last year, though the killing has underscored that violent crime remains an urgent, pervasive issue across the country.