Missing fisherman’s throat slit

The intense search for  Moruga fisherman Victor Wilbert “Salaam” Alexander, missing since  Tuesday, ended yesterday when his partly decomposed  body was found floating off the Icacos coast Friday. According to police sources, around 6.12 pm approximately two and a half miles south of  Icacos  point, fishermen on the trawler ‘Heidi Marie’ spotted Alexander’s body in the water. The Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard was summoned and the body was retrieved around 7.50 pm and positively identified by relatives. The body, which was said to be in an advanced state of decomposition, with a slit throat,  was handed over to the Cedros Police and viewed by District Medical Officer (DMO) Dr Mathura who ordered its removal to the San Fernando Mortuary.

A post  mortem is expected to be carried out on Tuesday to determine the exact cause of death. When Sunday Newsday visited Alexander’s wife, Louise Dover at her Moruga home yesterday, she was seen slumped in a couch at her home overwhelmed with grief saying, “I don’t  know why he had to go like that.” Dover and Alexander have been together for 15 years but have no children together. Alexander, however, has seven children from a previous relationship. A very depressed  Dover spoke of plans Alexander had put in place for their long awaited marriage in December. She said Alexander had in fact already arranged for the reception venue. “We were supposed  to get married in December, all plans have now gone down the drain - I feel like I can’t have anybody else in my life again,” she added, sobbing uncontrollably.

“Good things really don’t last, I will miss him so much. That same day, early in the morning when Salaam was leaving to go out to fish he told me he was bringing home a big fish to fry, but he never came back,” she added. Alexander and three other fishermen were abducted by four armed and masked Spanish-speaking  men while fishing in the high seas of the Moruga coast on Tuesday around 11.30 am. The three others,  Desmond “Grout” Raphael, Nicholas Sookhan and Kenrick Harripersad were rescued by fellow fishermen after their horrible ordeal of being tied up and  thrown overboard in a river flowing into southern Venezuela, but Alexander’s whereabouts remained unknown. Sgt Bill of the Moruga Police is continuing investigations.