‘We want the truth’

RELATIVES of missing mother, Kerice Goden, spent most of their morning yesterday, calling and driving to and from police stations trying to verify social media and media reports that she was found dead.

After frantically coming together and consoling each other, the family was told the reports were wrong. The police service issued a media release confirming that the information was incorrect, adding that the Anti-Kidnapping Squad was working on the case to find the 20-year-old mother who went missing two weeks ago.

Goden’s sister Victoria Sealey chastised two media houses for carrying the erroneous stories. “It was hard, emotionally and mentally. The family broke down. No family should have to go through that, our grandmother’s blood pressure is high now.” Sealey said the family learnt of Goden’s “death” through a social media post of a media house and believed it. Hours later, she said, they were informed that the report was false.

As they contacted relatives and friends telling them the reports were untrue, the family were being bombarded with calls that Goden’s body was found in central Trinidad. That too was false.

“Sorry can’t cover for the pain and fear that we have. That fear is not being able to trust what to believe. All we want is the truth, is she alive or not and if anyone knows anything, we are begging you all to come forward.”

Goden, who is four months pregnant, has a two-year-old daughter, and lives at Augustine Trace, Diego Martin. Goden, a security guard, was last seen by co-workers on the Brian Lara Promenade, Port of Spain, on September 19, at about 7.30 pm.

Sealey said her sister is not one to stay away from her home or to switch off her cellphone. She said her sister’s co-workers told the family that on the day Goden went missing, she received a phone call from a man who spoke loud enough for them to hear.

The man was questioning where she was and told them she was “coming back just now”, handing them a bag with her ID card and other documents before walking towards the Diego Martin taxi stand, on lower Abercromby Street, and vanished.

The father of Goden’s unborn child, who lives at Beetham Gardens, was questioned by police about her disappearance and released.

He told family that he spoke with Goden and was expecting her that night but fell asleep and when he woke up, at about 9 pm, she was not there and calls to her cellphone went unanswered.