Update: Quarry Village mourns as 96-year-old ‘Miss Tilda’ found dead

RESIDENTS of Quarry Village, Siparia, are distraught as they mourn the community's eldest resident, 96-year-old Utilda Joseph, who was found dead at her home on Saturday.

Police suspect foul play, as the mother of one was found with her left hand tied with a piece of fabric and blood around her mouth. Her bank and ID cards are missing.

Miss Tilda, as she was called in the community, had lived at Hillview Lane Extension, in a wooden house, for decades.

She was loved by many and was hailed for helping "raise and mentor" many members of the community – one of whom made the gruesome discovery.

Joseph's neighbour Dianne Paul told the media they were very close. Sometimes Joseph would sleep over at her home and vice versa.
"Sometimes she would tell me she lonely. Sometimes she would come and spend four nights by me."

She said Joseph's 74-year-old son died four years ago of cancer and "on his deathbed, I promised her son I would try to help her."

The two spoke on Friday from early morning to around 3 pm at Joseph's home.

"I came and I looked for her. She don't hear so good, so you have to knock hard. She say, 'Dee?' I said, 'Yes, open it, it's me.' And I sit right in front on the chair while she was sitting by the table."

She said she was telling Joseph she had got the covid19 vaccine on Thursday and was feeling some discomfort.

Joseph asked her for a tin of Ensure, which she promised to buy the next day on her way home from work.

But on Saturday, Paul said her daughter told her she had not seen Joseph all day, which was strange, as she would relax in a hammock under the house very often.

"I called the neighbour and asked if Tilda by her. She said no. I came across and I start to knock, all the louvres I knocking and no answer. The door was locked. I went back home and I told my husband and my son."

She said her 25-year-old son, Elliston, went to Joseph's home with her and passed through a space between the louvres.

"I said 'Yes, go through, because we don't know if something is wrong with her.'

"When he open the door, we stand up watching and notice is dead she dead and had something tied around her hand. She had blood around her mouth. I don't know what was in her mouth. I said 'Don't touch nothing,' and we called the ambulance and the police."

She said first responders told her Joseph's body was cold so it may have happened overnight.

She said her son has been crying non-stop since the discovery.

"She come like a grandmother to all children here. She mind my son from a baby, taking him to primary school, and then to see this come and happen to her, that is not good at all. Nothing ever too hard for she to give anybody...She will give you whatever she have and would do without.

"When I was making these last two children, she gave me the date, the time and the year, and it was exact day, time and year (they were born)."

She added, "She didn't deserve that."

She said there was a young man in the community who would often try to ask Joseph for a lot of money and she would tell him she did not have.

One time, he went into her home and sat on a chair before she chased him out.

Her great-grandnephew,Carver Thompson told Newsday he found out about her death around 2 pm on Saturday and when he arrived at her home, "The police told me not to go inside because they found her in a state that needs to be investigated."

He said she spent the Easter holidays with him in Moruga, adding that she was "an able-bodied," short woman.

"She would read without glasses. I young and I have to use glasses to read. The only problem she had was hearing," he said.

He said at times, she was fearful of living alone and would stay with neighbours "whenever she felt uneasy."

He would take her to the bank and the supermarket whenever she needed to go. But he said she was always an independent woman.

He said she kept cash at home, but not large sums.

"She left Moruga young, probably 70 years ago, and since then, it took us a long time to find out where she was living."

He said he made a friend who lives in the community some years ago and had mentioned he had a relative there. When he said her name, his friend said she knew her. This is how he found her.

Asked how he would describe the person who did this to her, he said, "I will have to side with (Commissioner of Police) Gary Griffith (and say) a cockroach. That's a cockroach."

Former La Brea MP and Quarry Village resident Nicole Olivierre told members of the media that last July, Joseph was presented with an award for her contributions to the community. She described her as a pillar.

"It is a tragedy something like this would happen in a quiet, peaceful community such as this. As you can see, there are no barbed wires, no burglar proofing, everyone lives as a family. So it's really heartbreaking to know that someone would take advantage of an elderly person.

"You know, in these communities, you cherish elderly people. We don't have a culture of people living in homes, they stay in the house they grow up in and your neighbour and the whole community will look out for you and help you when they see you're in need."

For someone to do something like this, she said, "It shows that you have no compassion as a human being.

"We need to cherish them (the elderly) and learn from them and support them."

Joseph would have been 97 on May 31.