Police: No increase – drop in missing women in 2020

There is no “massive" number of missing women in TT, and in fact, fewer women have gone missing than last year, said one police officer.

He told Newsday he was not trivialising the matter, but when a few women go missing, abducted, or are killed, people tend to believe there have suddenly been many cases.

“Over 100 (fewer) women have been reported missing this year compared to last year, and there have been over 20 (fewer) deaths than last year.

"But many times sensationalism and wrongful perception give the wrong impression.”

Statistics from the police showed that 416 out of 745 people missing so far this year were women, a drop from 535 out of 940 in 2019.

Two cases that distressed many people this week were those of 18-year-old Ashanti Riley and Krystal Primus-Espinoza, 36.

Riley, of Lloyd Street, Sunshine Avenue, San Juan, was last seen alive on November 29, when she left home to meet family. Her naked body was found on Friday morning in Santa Cruz.

A 32-year-old man was held in connection with her disappearance on Monday, a San Juan man was arrested on Friday, and the police were looking for a third man.

Primus-Espinoza, the mother of two, left her Mayaro home on December 2 in her husband’s Hilux pickup. Hours later, her family reported her missing to the police. But on Thursday morning the pickup was found crashed on Penzance beach, and her body was found washed ashore not far away that evening.

Police statistics also indicate that 80 per cent of all those reported missing this year returned or were found, compared to 87 per cent last year.

The officer said police get about 930 reports of missing people annually, and about 90 per cent were people who did not want to be found.

“When we get three reports every day of people missing, it takes a lot of effort and work for the police, and then you find out after that the lady had a boyfriend, or the young boy had a lime and fell asleep, and decide to catch up with the family two days later.”

He added that the remaining ten per cent were still of utmost concern to the police.

The statistics also showed the age group showing the highest number of missing people was the 15-19 bracket.

So far, in 2020, the total number in this group was 273, with 210 being female and 63 male. Of the total, 222 have returned.

The next highest was the under-15 age group. One hundred females and 38 males went missing, and 111 have returned.

When contacted, Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith said he would have a press conference early next week to explain what the police intended to do to deal with the cases of those still missing.