2 years after kidnapping...is Ria still alive?

IT HAS been almost two years since his wife Ria Sookdeo was kidnapped by gunmen, but Mark Sookdeo still holds on to the hope that he may see her again. On September 22, 2016, Ria left her Raghoo Village, Debe home at 8.30 am to drop off her two children at the Picton Presbyterian School. She was turning her Nissan X-Trail SUV a short distance away from the school, when a vehicle blocked her path.

Two gunmen forced her out of her car and into theirs, then drove off. Ria, then 34, has never been seen since. About a month later, reports from Tane Tanae, a Venezuelan news site which reports on the Amarcuro Delta, said Ria had been spotted in Venezuela. Yesterday, Sookdeo said rumours that Ria is still alive never stopped circulating.

“It is the same thing, just a different day,” he said. “I hear people saying she is alive and living comfortably in Venezuela. But police say there is no evidence that those rumours are true.” Sookdeo said although his family life is returning to a semblance of normality, the children still grieve for their mother.

“It has been almost two years, I try my best to do everything for them but they still cry and ask for her, they still miss their mummy and want her to come home.” Sookdeo divides his time between work and being both mother and father to the children. He too is holding on to the hope that Ria may come home.

“I want to see her again, I wish all the time that she could come home and we could be a family again.” He said police investigating Ria’s abduction are still in contact with him and are still paying attention to her case. “One senior officer dropped in a few weeks ago. He sat down and spoke to me about the case. There is nothing new now, but I still have hope.”