‘I could not care for him’

ROGER Hodge Snr, father of Roger Hodge, the autistic teenager whose body was found floating in a Santa Cruz river on Wednesday evening, admitted yesterday that he had been unable to take proper care of his son. “He needed a 24 hour watch and I did not have the capacity to care for him,” said Hodge. “Everything was down to me and I could not make it. At present I live in a shack and do not have even proper shelter to keep him. “Sometimes I send him by my mother where he was last but that is not enough because she got her own problems and cannot watch him all the time. We are accustomed to him walking away and being returned later that night by someone who found him. “While he knew his name, he had no sense of direction or time and could easily be lost.”

Hodge said he attempted to get help from social services but they visited him once and offered some minimal financial help. When he told them he wanted shelter, not financial help, they never returned. Hodge said he had been searching for his son since he disappeared on Saturday. On Wednesday a resident reported hearing two children splashing in a nearby river on Tuesday and also on Wednesday morning. When Hodge visited the river, he found his son’s body trapped between bamboo roots. When Newsday visited the family at their home in Jaggan Village, Santa Cruz, relatives expressed sadness at the situation but said they cannot blame anyone for the teenager’s death. Hodge Junior, 18, will be buried on Tuesday.