Sea Lots mother believes missing son is dead, wants body for burial

Keston Morris. -
Keston Morris. -

Marilyn Wilson wants to bury her son. She is hoping that whoever killed him will at least give her an opportunity for closure by letting her know where his body is.

Newsday spoke with Wilson at her Production Avenue, Sea Lots, home on Wednesday.

The mother of six said she has accepted that her son Keston “Chos” Morris, 33, is dead, although police is still treating his case as that of a missing person.

She said she saw her son’s body on social media pages.

“I didn't believe he was dead until I saw pictures for myself. I saw them and I say ‘That is my child, they kill him.’

“All I want, all I would like to have, is his body, his remains, because they say they chop it up.

“We don't have any confirmation, but the people responsible say we can’t find that body at all, no matter how hard we try. My consolation is I know he dead, may his soul rest in peace somewhere, wherever it is.”

Wilson said her son, who was released from prison in 2018 after eight years on remand for murder, was always partying, seemingly to make up for lost time while in prison.

In April 2018, Morris, Reinaldo Marcano, 36, Raymond Birot, 45, Jirt Serrette, 32, Gerard Hepburn 24, Devon Samuel, 24, Terrence “Trix” David, Keon “Taliban” Lawrence and Joel “Snake” Roberts, 25, were all freed of murdering Ameil George, 24.

George, of Building One, Harding Place, Cocorite, was murdered on January 18, 2010. He was attacked near his home by a group of men during a robbery and was chopped multiple times.

Morris was part of what police called the “Dirty Dozen” after 12 men were charged with George’s murder. In July, the three others, Shawn Villafana, 23, Sherwin Alexander, 32, and Richard “Bulls” Thomas were acquitted.

Relatives, who were around when Newsday visited but did not want to be identified, recalled last seeing and hearing from Morris on July 16 after he planned to go to a party with his sister and some of her friends in the area.

That day he was seen leaving the area in a white Toyota Axio. One relative said he told those who saw him in the car that he was safe. He was never seen or heard from since.

Wilson said, on Sunday she began seeing pictures and hearing rumours that he was killed in Central Trinidad but police had no information on that. Calls by relatives to police stations and hospitals were fruitless in finding him.

Wilson said after seeing three photos of her son tied up, two where he looked alive and one with him looking as though he was dead with what she believes to be a gunshot to the head, she was convinced he was killed.

She said her son must have been betrayed because in one of the photographs he appeared shocked at who was having him tied up.

Relatives said all the photographs they saw came from Morris’ phone. They said the killers were using his Instagram account to send photos and, in some cases, were liking images of him missing. They questioned why police had not tracked his phone to find his body and/or his killers.

Asked why she was so calm speaking about her son in the past tense, Wilson said she accepted that he is dead and had cried before. She believes a time will come when her son’s killers and or their relatives will have to cry.

Wilson said Morris was anticipating his son’s first birthday on Sunday and had plans to go to the Radisson Hotel with his siblings and their children to celebrate.

Relatives said Morris was a “ladies man” who did not work, but was cared for by the women in his life – some of whom knew about the others and had no issue sharing him.

“He is a lucky fella when it comes to girls because he had many,” Wilson said.

Asked why someone would want to kidnap and kill him, Wilson said: “We live in communities that warring each other, so enemy grab him. They want to make it look like is Sea Lots, but is not Sea Lots. Is enemy hands he end up in.”

She could not swear that her son “don’t do nothing,” but could only testify to what he told her and he never told her he was involved in criminality.

“My only hope is to ask God, even if it is in whole, in pieces, in whatever, just for a body to bury – that’s all I want, a body to bury. Even if is just a fingernail, just to say my final goodbye and ‘Son rest in peace.’”

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