We just wanted her back

Yesterday, at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, Rehana Singh, a mother of three, told reporters that her 14-year-old daughter Shivani Persad, who left their Rio Claro home on Wednesday morning and never returned, may be in the company of a 25-year-old man with whom the the father used to work.

She told reporters that she believes the man may have something to do with the death of her husband and her daughter’s disappearance.

“If she is out there and she can read this, the message I would send to her is that it is time for her to come home,” said a sobbing Singh, while at the Forensics Sciences Centre in St James, awaiting an autopsy on her husband.

“Her father is not there no more and I would like her to at least see him before he is buried. He is gone - is only my daughters I have to live for now.” Singh said that she does not know if her missing daughter is aware that her father is dead.

Newsday was told that before Shivani’s disappearance, the man approached her and her husband, and asked to pursue a relationship with the teenager. She said she and Singh refused to allow them to see each other.

On Wednesday last, Shivani, a form three student of the Rio Claro East Secondary School, left their home for school, but never returned.

The family made a report to the police, but suspected that the man may have had something to do with her disappearance.

They searched for the man in his home at Ecclesville, which is located a few miles east of Rio Claro, however neither he nor Shivani could have been found.

Along with assisting police in the search for her daughter, Singh and her husband continued looking on Saturday night, but their searches bore no results.

Singh and Persad returned home minutes before midnight.

A half hour later, a loud explosion was heard and Persad was found in a pool of blood in the doorway of their home. He died shortly after.

Officers of the Rio Claro Police Station were alerted and officers from the Eastern Division visited the scene.