Of gods and monsters

The impact is not limited to Joseph’s family however. Members of the community that nurtured her, from her teachers at primary school to caring and attentive neighbours, will all today feel the pain of this. But the greatest pain will be felt by her child, now motherless, who will bear the knowledge of the circumstances of a loved one’s death for a lifetime.

Joseph’s police colleagues, who would have worked hard and hoped and prayed for a different outcome, must now be devastated.

The pain is worsened by her youthful promise as well as the sobering reality that this is an outcome that has touched upon a member of the protective services. Who is safe, if even the Police Service can lose its members to the scourge of crime? Efforts must be made to ensure all those affected receive adequate counselling and support.

The developments are a blow to a police district which has a tremendous task of keeping crime under control. Joseph was last posted at the Morvant Police Station.

In the course of investigations police have detained several people, including one male figure who had close ties to Joseph. Another figure, said to have a boat, has also reportedly surrendered. We hope investigators are able to identify the perpetrator(s) and any associates who may have been involved or assisted.

The details of how the corpse was discovered suggests a great degree of effort in attempting to conceal the body, though some details are hard to reconcile with this. It is for the forensic officers to determine the cause of death and to work out a narrative of what has occurred. One forensics website, however, suggests these officers may have an impossible task.

The body would have been exposed to many changes in the surrounding temperature, pH and salt content.

These factors make determination of the time of death difficult.

Compounding the problem even more is that the trauma experienced by the body from ocean exposure is hard to differentiate from the trauma from foul play.

Whoever disposed of this body may have been counting on this.

Meanwhile, we salute the diligence of the two fishermen who discovered the body in the course of looking for shrimp. Instead, they made a most macabre find.

Notwithstanding all the challenges, we hope justice can be done. Too often in cases like this there is no resolution. While the discovery of the body is itself an important form of closure for all concerned, equally important is a conviction in the criminal justice system.

Joseph’s case has made many question the fate of other missing females, such as Ria Sookdeo, who has seemingly vanished without a trace. The manner in which Joseph’s body was apparently disposed of also brought to mind the case of mother of three Eden Teesdale, found butchered and stuffed in a barrel at the Mitan River. Her head was never discovered. Her killer remains at large.

The ironic thing is that Joseph’s case comes just as Trinidad and Tobago joined with the rest of the world in observing International Women’s Day. A march occurred on Saturday, gathering support from diverse groups.

It seems trite now to suggest what is already known. Women are under attack. What is more disturbing is the casualness, the banality of the evil — to borrow Hannah Arendt’s phrase — which now stalks the land. Women are being discarded, in the sea, in rivers, and who knows where else, as if this is an ordinary thing, as if men are entitled to play gods. Monsters.