What she got instead was death.

A country-wide search by police, soldiers, cadaver dogs, relatives and hunters ended yesterday when the 25-year-old woman’s decomposing body was found in a shallow grave in some bushes in Santa Flora.

According to a police report at about 11 am, four men who were hunting for iguanas in the forests 156 metres off St Clyne Road in Santa Flora came across the shallow grave with sections of Simms’ body protruding from the loose earth. A report was made to the police and a team of officers including detectives from the Homicide Investigations Bureau visited the scene along with the district medical officer (DMO).

Simms left her Rampersad Trace, Rochard Road, Penal home last Saturday to meet with a man whom her relatives knew only as Mr Kenny about a possible job.

She told loved ones she was going to meet the man at a restaurant in Penal. Two weeks ago, she was laid off her job as a waitress at an establishment where Mr Kenny was a regular customer.

CCTV footage in the Penal restaurant showed that Simms did meet with the man and had lunch last Saturday at 1 pm.

Simms was found yesterday fully clothed and clad in the same outfit she wore last Saturday. A 31-year-old Siparia yam vendor is currently assisting detectives in their investigations.

The area where Simms’ body was found, police said, is a short distance from where the suspect lives. A police report stated that on Sunday relatives reported her missing to the Penal Police Station.

A search was carried out between Sunday and yesterday when the gruesome discovery was made.

Sgts Harripersad, Khan and Mohammed and Cpl George along with officers of the South Western Division Task Force, Mounted and Canine Branch and Anti Kidnapping Unit were all involved in daily searches in the dense forests. Simms would have celebrated her 26th birthday next Tuesday.

Yesterday as news spread through the village that her body was found, villagers arrived near the crime scene and huddled under the shade of a tree discussing the incident. A resident recalled seeing the suspect at 4 pm on Saturday walking with Simms. “I saw her personally, she was a real nice looking girl. He was passing and he called out to me as he walked with her…I answered him.

He called me out for me to notice him walking with this nice-looking girl,” said the man.

The villager added that he knew the suspect as a baby and feels he (the suspect) has brought shame on the quiet community.

“We never had this kind of thing here.” At 3.20 pm yesterday, Simms’ mother Nafeesa Simms, aunt Homaida Ali and other relatives arrived on the scene accompanied by police officers. Simms remained in a police vehicle.

Speaking to reporters, a distraught Ali said no person deserves such a horrific death adding that lawlessness at all levels is now the order of the day in the country. Because of the advanced state of decomposition, police and the DMO could not ascertain cause of death. The body was later removed to the Forensic Science Centre in St James where an autopsy is expected to be done today. The suspect remains in police custody.

He is expected to appear in the Arima Magistrates Court today.

The charges were laid by Acting Cpl Norbert of the Arima Police Station. The man who was released from police custody last Friday night has reportedly received several death threats and sought protection of the police.

Yesterday, Head of Northern Division Senior Superintendent Mc Donald Jacob, during the weekly police press briefing at Police Administration building in Port-of- Spain, confirmed the re-arrest of the D’Abadie driver whom the top cop identified as Kelvin Lewis and noted there are 15 major intersections between Valpark in the west to Cumuto junction in the east, all outfitted with CCTV cameras.

These intersections and CCTV cameras are replicated on the bus route. He said that the CCTV footage coming out of the Divisional Operations Centre proved useful in this investigation.

Jacob called on persons to exercise due caution when driving because of the amount of intersections on the bus route and the Churchill Roosevelt Highway.

“There is no place for people to be speeding and breaking the lights, and they have to exercise due care.” Last week Thursday at 10.30 pm, Carla Collins sat in the backseat of a car driven by her husband Keston who was driving the vehicle south along the Mausica Main Road.

When the car crossed the PBR on the green light, a car which was proceeding east along the PBR, went through the red light and slammed into the right side of Collins’ car.

Carla and her children Camani, eight months, and Armani, two, who were all in the backseat, were thrown out of the car by the impact, onto the PBR and died at the scene.

Collins’ car spun and crashed into another car which was parked at the side of the intersection.

The driver was charged with three counts of causing death by dangerous driving, breach of a traffic light and one count of unlawful use of the PBR.

However, Wayne Matthews believes that his mother’s murder will be solved. She was found dead in her home on the weekend.

An autopsy revealed she was stabbed eight times.

Wayne, who was only 14 when he left this country and emigrated to the United States, said he spent Christmas Day and New Years Day with his mother, siblings and other relatives and it was one of the happiest times in his life.

According to Wayne, his mother returned to Trinidad in early January and was expected to return to the United States shortly.

Now that her life has been snuffed out in such a violent way, Wayne told Newsday that he never expected this from the country of his birth and at the hands of a citizen or citizens because his mother was such a peaceful person.

“I feel devastated and disappointed, not only with what happened with my mother but with the other murder victims,” Wayne said.

“It is truly devastating especially with the amount of persons being murdered and the numbers are truly bothering. It is just too rapid for a small country like Trinidad and Tobago, a place which I believe is a beautiful country where I was born. It should not be like this.” He called on his mother’s killer or killers to surrender “because at the end of the day they will be found and justice will prevail and I will personally see to it.” On Tuesday, Wayne and his two sisters went to Churchill Circular, Arima, and while they had limited access to the house where his mother’s body was found, their relatives managed to begin cleaning up the house which is still being treated as a crime scene.

He said that he did not have the strength to go into the house to see the bloodied mattress where his mother’s body was found.

Wayne said that he returned to Trinidad with a heavy heart on Monday and thanked his uncle, former director of the National Operations Centre, Garvin Heerah, for providing the necessary support.

According to Wayne, his mother was an extremely independent- minded person and although she was concerned about the spate of crime in the country, she had faith in God and was never afraid of anything.

He believes that she may have put up a good fight with her attacker or attackers but in the end she was overpowered by the ruthless person or persons who ended her life.

In view of the spate of cow itch problems normally experienced during each dry season, from December 1 to June 30 the following year), the advisory seeks to lessen the effects of cow itch by sensitising the public to the dangers of the plant.

The vines should be kept under control, by diligent removal and constant monitoring during the rainy season, said the advisory.

Seedlings should be continually cut during the rainy season.

The rational for the executive order of January 27 is to protect the US from foreign terrorist entry.

Yet, it seems to introduce no measure that would actually do that. Rather, its discriminatory focus and its tightening of the pool of people who can trigger the arduous process of seeking refugee status simply make things harder for law enforcement officials seeking to engage US interests abroad.

More fundamentally, the order appears heartless in its cavalier over-generalisation. In one fell swoop, its language deems all foreign-born nationals thus, “Numerous foreign-born individuals have been convicted or implicated in terrorism-related crimes since September 11, 2001.” The coded message is: keep foreigners out, they are all terrorists.

Worse, the order sneakily discriminates on the basis of religion, using the language of the protection of minorities. Without presenting an iota of evidence to back up his claim, Trump defended this, saying Christians have been treated unfairly.

We take no comfort in any of this. The implications are profound.

As an act of law, the order may well be unsound. But as an act of policy, it sends a chillingly effective message: the US will act not on the basis of rationality and comity, but will have partisan politics sway security concerns. If the US is unsafe, the world is unsafe.

Therefore, there is little surprise in the unprecedented uproar of demonstrations all over the world.

Thousands of people have used their democratic right to let their voices be heard on this issue.

Dismayingly, none of this has swayed the White House. Even the resignation of a top official in the office of the attorney general has been brushed aside.

“They should either get with the programme or they can go,” said Sean Spicer, Trump’s press secretary.

We are in a very troubling era of our modern history. If all of these developments can happen in one week, one wonders what will happen in one month, one year, one presidential term.

The wider problem with the executive order is that it may reflect what the White House might hope to be a deeper shift in policies.

While there have been some bogus claims of arbitrary limits now being imposed, the atmosphere is such that people do not put it beyond Trump to limit visas per country and to arbitrarily introduce draconian measures that catch people unawares.

Will this also be the approach of the Trump White House to wider immigration matters and trading relations? If this measure stands, we are on a slippery and dangerous slope.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley this week had cause to underline this country’s commitment to the fight against terror and to cooperate with US officials in this regard.

It remains to be seen how the election of Trump will affect the Caricom/US dynamic. A key issue that has been on the agenda is the question of deportees and cooperation in national security interests.

The US focus on securing its borders comes at a time when borders are becoming less and less important for thousands.

For instance, this Carnival many TT nationals living abroad will return home, and many foreign nationals will be welcomed to these shores to wine and fete. We strongly admonish the unjust and discriminatory policies now being advanced, but we have hope that people will continue to make their voices heard and will further integrate no matter what obstacles stand in the way

He had made his way to where I was, around the back of the house, daring to travail a garden path he normally shunned when night fell.

He got to me and immediately gave up breath. He had survived well, thanks to a ruinously expensive heart medication prescribed by a local vet who kindly promised to buy back the hard-to-get drug if and when necessary. I contacted him and offered to donate some other remaining prescribed drugs and to sell the clinic the heart drug, as we had agreed. No one I spoke to on the phone at the clinic, including the vet, offered any condolences, which slightly surprised me since the vets are usually very solicitous after treating unwell animals, calling to check after an intervention or prescribing new medication.

I took the drugs to the clinic last weekend. This is the depressing exchange with the perpetually unfriendly receptionist. She is standing behind the counter. Nobody is waiting.

Me: Good morning, my name is Salandy-Brown. I spoke to……..

(I stop mid-sentence as the receptionist who seems not to have seen or heard me leaves to deal with another client sitting on the public side of the short L-shaped counter.

I start again as she returns).

Me: Good morning, my dog, Spot…… (I pause again as she stops, still without acknowledging me, and turns to finger some white cards stacked on the side just along from where I am standing. She suddenly speaks, to nobody in particular).

Receptionist: Did you bring the invoice? (She picks up one of the cards and finally turns towards me without looking up).

Me: Yes, it’s in this bag. There are also some other drugs there, not all very cheap, which I would like to donate to the clinic. (She takes the bag, opens it, closely examines the invoice and the package of other drugs). I could take them away if you don’t want them.

Receptionist: (Finally looking at me, with half a smile). OK.

What they did not tell you is that my accountant is not here today, so you will have to pass back for the cheque.

Me: I did tell the doctor I’d be coming in either yesterday or today.

I wish I’d known. I don’t think I’d be able to come back. Maybe you could send it to me? Receptionist: What do you mean? Me: Could you put it in the post? Receptionist: Put your name and your correct, PROPER address on this piece of paper.

Me: Could you please make a copy of the invoice for me? (I don’t hear her clearly but I gather that it’s not possible).

Me: Could I have a separate piece of paper, to copy the invoice details, as I won’t remember them? (I note the details and return the invoice). Thank you.

Receptionist: (As I turn to go).

Put your contact number here too, so they can let you know when they’ve done it.

Not the most civil encounter, but a frequent Trini one today: The customer is not valued and routinely belittled.

It is how we deal with one another, increasingly.

It is the thin end of the wedge.

Relatives went to the Centre and positively identified the body after lodging a missing person report to police.

Relatives declined to be interviewed yesterday after viewing the body telling reporters they wanted to be left alone as the trauma of seeing Khan’s body minus his head and hands, was too much.

Last Saturday at 10 am, a passer-by saw a trail of blood on the road in Lopinot and followed the trail to nearby bushes where Khan’s body was found clad only in a pair of boxers.

The man’s head and hands have not be found and police believe Khan was decapitated and his hands chopped off in order to conceal his identity.

Homicide officers have revisited the scene were the body was found with cadaver dogs in an effort to locate the missing body parts.

They appeared before the fourth public meeting of the Joint Select Committee on National Security yesterday at the J. Hamilton Maurice Room at the Office of the Parliament, Tower D, Port-of- Spain.

Chairman of the Implementation Committee Mark Lutchman, said they expect to have a contract for the purchase of the necessary equipment in place by May 31, along with a manager, deputy manager and a staff of ten. They said that a pilot project will be set up in the St George West Magisterial District using 300 monitoring devices.

However, in response to questions from members of the Parliamentary Committee, the members of the Implementation Committee, which include prison officers, said there are about 2,200 inmates on remand in the prison system but not all would be considered for the programme. They said that in the long term the pilot project would include about 1,500 – 2,000 monitoring devices.

Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee Fitzgerald Hinds repeatedly urged the Implementation Committee to move speedily to commence the electronic monitoring system, saying the country is far behind as the Administration of Justice (Electronic Monitoring) Act was passed in 2012 and it was now 2017.

Lutchman said that while the act was passed in 2012, the committee was only set up last year and received instruments of appointment on August 5. The Parliamentary Committee heard that the system would help in dealing with domestic violence and the enforcement of protection orders. Ag Snr Supt Radcliffe Boxhill of the Criminal Investigation Department said the devices would also be fitted to persons against whom protection orders have been issued in relation to domestic violence.

He said in the event such a person violated the protection order and went too close to the victim, the device would send a signal to the monitoring centre and it would be possible to direct the nearest police unit to quickly intercept the offender.

Collins, a Leading Seaman with the TT Coast Guard, was supported by his colleagues as he struggled to contain his grief when he saw his wife dressed in her white wedding gown as she lay in her casket. Nearby, their two sons lay in two small coffins, with their favourite teddy bears placed in the coffins.

Pastor Pierre Morgan urged mourners to forgive a D’Abadie man whose car crashed into the Collins’ car, causing the deaths Carla, Armani and Kamani. Morgan said this was a time for healing instead of revenge and hate.

Carla’s brother Brent Maxima, said his sister carried with her a gentleness and caring nature that led her to become a geriatric nurse. However, he said she could be the live wire of any party and always was keen on making a grand entrance.

Maxima said Carla had an unshakeable faith in God, was a born home maker whose care for her sons was extraordinary. “I fully understand that you had to take your children with you and I know you would have taken me with you, but I am not ready for you to take me. I have a purpose to fulfill,” Maxima said.

Apostle J Vernon Duncan called for a day of fasting for the nation to try to help heal the land. He said the three caskets were testimony that God’s voice was speaking to our land. “This is a message for the nation of Trinidad and Tobago that something is radically wrong, something is amiss in this land. We need the Spirit of God to present His power in this tragedy. We cannot deal with it by ourselves, it is too much. Grace is the unmerited favour of God. Call upon God, He is willing to intervene in the affairs of life,” Duncan said The service was attended by President Anthony Carmona who was seen comforting a weeping Collins during the service. D’Abadie/ O’Meara MP Ancil Antoine, was also at the funeral service.

“Call on God because there is a thief on the prowl, a demonic hierarchy stealing our fathers, stealing our husbands, stealing those who are supposed to be in society.

Why are there so many killings, so many murders? Why are we faced with so much bloodshed, so many unsolved murders? Good people are being snuffed out. This land belongs to God. God is the sovereign leader.

“We are not to defile the land of God. This is the time to kneel down in repentance. The wheels of justice turn very, very slowly in this land. We need divine intervention in Trinidad and Tobago,” Duncan said. Following the service, mother and sons were buried at the Arima public cemet

In awarding the sum to the woman, Justice Frank Seepersad criticised the Police Service for slapping a malicious charge on the woman who worked as a janitor at the time and was locked in a police cell for the weekend because she was unable to tell them the whereabouts of one of her sons.

Justice Seepersad said the fight against crime must start with rebuilding public confidence in the Police Service, lamenting that even trial juries do not trust the police.

In the lawsuit, the woman said that at about 11.30 pm on August 26, 2011 police entered her house in South Trinidad without a warrant and asked for her sons.

She said that she did not know their whereabouts. Police said she was lying and searched the house.

The woman was arrested, handcuffed and taken to the Ste Madeleine Police Station at 1.30 am where she was placed in a cell. On Saturday at about 7 am, she was given bread and butter to eat, but nothing to drink. The woman who suffers with high blood pressure, got no medication.

At 11.15 am she was charged with stealing paint brushes. At 6 am the following day (Sunday), the woman was taken to the San Fernando Police Station where she was placed in a cell. On Monday, the case was dismissed in the San Fernando Magistrates Courts as it was determined the woman was the lawful owner of the paint brushes.

Attorneys Lester Chariah and Taurean Dassyne filed a malicious prosecution case against the State on behalf of the pensioner. Justice Seepersad awarded the woman $80,000 in general and aggravated damages. The sum, he ordered, would generate interest of 1.5 percent from the date of the filing of the action last year.

The judge also awarded the woman exemplary damages in the sum of $10,000, plus $5,000 for legal fees. The State was also ordered to pay the woman’s legal cost for the High Court case which is to be assessed by the registrar.