Worried mom searches forests for Neisha

MARJORIE MARCHAN could no longer stand being without her kidnapped nine-year-old daughter Neisha. So yesterday, the worried woman with steely resolve, left home and went searching on foot for her child through the Piparo forests. Marchan, 50, and a group of villagers formed a search party and went into the forests surrounding the Central Range looking for signs of the kidnapped primary school student. Yesterday’s search was one of many which Neisha’s relatives and villagers have conducted through the forests surrounding their home in Tabaquite, without the assistance of police.

“From the first night she was kidnapped, we were asking for sniffer dogs and helicopter searches, but they didn’t send anything,” Neisha’s worried father Ishwarlal Seeteram told Newsday. “Where is my daughter? We miss her. We suggested to police that the kidnappers took her and escaped on foot. So maybe if they came with sniffer dogs and helicopters that same night, we might have gotten her back already,” the grieving man added. The primary school student was doing her homework around 6.15 pm last week Thursday, when men dressed in army camouflage stormed the house asking for her uncle — Winston Seecharan — the proprietor of Kenny Kazar Sawmill in Tabaquite. Seecharan was not at home, but his wife Pamela and their 14-month-old baby and Neisha, confronted the intruders.

Pamela said the kidnappers pointed a gun at her and Neisha and taped their mouths with duct tape. The men then ransacked the house and stole $3,000 cash and $5,000 worth of jewelry, before grabbing Neisha and running out of the house. The little girl has not been heard from since. Speaking at the home of his brother-in-law where Neisha was grabbed, the child’s father said many people were looking for the nine-year-old child, “day and night.” A relative who came to support the family when Newsday was there yesterday said a policeman told them that a National Security helicopter was too expensive for Government to employ to assist in the search.

The relative, who asked not to be identified, also said: “but we found out that helicopter searches are free of charge for the public in circumstances such as this.” Seeteram said Neisha’s mother had not been coping well since their daughter was snatched. “When she saw the report on the news, she collapsed on the steps. We had to rush her to hospital. Everyday she crying for her Neisha,” Seeteram said. The child’s father continued: “We think this is a case of mistaken identity because we are poor people. We don’t have money to pay a ransom.” Seeteram again denied that kidnappers were calling for $500,000 for his daughter’s return, but police said yesterday that this ransom had been demanded.

Local Government councillor for Edinburgh/Chickland Paras Ramoutar yesterday visited the family to offer words of encouragement. Ramoutar said he was constantly calling for a police station in the area, since the closure of the Brasso Police Station in 1998. “I have been appealing to successive ministers of national security for a police station for Tabaquite and Caparo. The population and business are growing in these districts and Government needs to get serious about serving the people in these areas,” Ramoutar said. Up to the time Newsday left the victim’s home, Neisha’s mother had not returned from her search in the forests. Police sources told Newsday they had drawn a blank regarding clues to the girl’s possible whereabouts. The kidnappers have also reportedly not called the family since making their initial ransom demand.