Trini couple goes missing in Toronto

A TRINIDAD couple who left their Canadian home on Friday morning to collect airline tickets at a travel agency is missing, and police suspect foul play. Their car was found abandoned at El Dorado Park, corner of Creditview Road and Steeles Avenue West in Brampton, leading investigators to believe that the couple could be dead. Missing are Dillraj (Tony) Roopdial, 32, and his wife Hemattie, 25. They were last seen leaving their home at the corner of Kipling Avenue and Albion Road around 11.30 am on Friday. The Roopdials were reported missing after they failed to show up to collect ’plane tickets to Trinidad at a travel agency in Mississauga last Friday. Hemattie’s sister Seema Ramsaran was due to travel with Hemattie’s son, 5, and daughter, 4, today to spend the summer holidays with her parents in Trinidad.

Instead, the children’s grandparents flew to Toronto on hearing that the couple was missing. Ramsaran, 22, said the couple left home together for the travel agent’s office Friday. “They were going to get ’plane tickets for me and their kids,” Ramsaran said. “I was going to take them back home to Trinidad for the summer.” She called the police on Friday night when she realised that the children were not picked up. The Roopdials were going to stay behind and move into a new home in Brampton. Dillraj’s brother, Ramraj, 40, is stunned by the couple’s disappearance. “He was supposed to come and help me redo my floor on Friday night,” he said.

“I think about them every minute. I don’t know whether they are alive or dead. I don’t think she’s safe,” said Ramsaran of her sister,  adding it was unthinkable for her to spend two nights away from her children and not call home. She said Hemattie would call home from work up to “10 times a day” to check on her children. Ramraj said that two years ago Hemattie had a restraining order placed against Dillraj, but the couple did not seem to be having any problems lately. Ramsaran said the couple’s passports and other travel documents are at home so it’s unlikely they have left the country. Police say nothing suspicious was found in their car, a red 1992 Chevrolet Cavalier. A search of El Dorado Park has so far revealed nothing.

On Friday, Dillraj came home from work unexpectedly around 11 am, said Ramsaran, and offered to take his wife to the travel agent. Hemattie, who was working a night shift later that day, was surprised but agreed to go, her sister said. Hemattie had planned to visit her children’s school to tell them Friday would be their last day before going to Trinidad for the summer. “But she went with him and I went to the school instead.” said Ramsaran. “That was the last time I saw her.” Hemattie and Dillraj’s two children haven’t been told that their parents are missing. “They haven’t been asking for her (Hemattie) so much,” Ramsaran said. She explained that the children are used to her looking after them while their mother is at work. “But I can’t go anywhere far from them.”After getting married and having two children, Hemattie graduated from Humber College as a chemical engineer technician.