Ex-wife of murdered taxi driver seeks closure for daughter

The body of Damien Primus was found in Valencia recently. His daughter Destini Primus 16 on left and her mother Bernice Nedd, await to identify him at the Forensic Science Centre, Barbados Road, Port of Spain on Monday.
Photo by Angelo Marcelle
The body of Damien Primus was found in Valencia recently. His daughter Destini Primus 16 on left and her mother Bernice Nedd, await to identify him at the Forensic Science Centre, Barbados Road, Port of Spain on Monday. Photo by Angelo Marcelle

The former common-law wife of murdered taxi driver Damian Primus says she hopes her daughter can have closure after her father's body is conclusively identified.

Primus, 46, was found dead in a bushy area off Cumaca Road, Valencia, last Monday night.

He was identified by relatives last week.

Speaking with Newsday at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, on Monday, Bernice Nedd said she identified Primus's body for the sake of their daughter, 16-year-old Destiny Primus.

"I just want closure for my child. She doesn't want anyone else telling her that it's really her father that they identified. She wants me as her mother to identify him so I can tell her that there is no more Daddy. So that's why I'm here."

Nedd said Primus worked as a private hire taxi driver after losing his job in an advertising company during the covid19 pandemic.

She said the area where Primus's body was found had a reputation for being a hideout for criminals from Port of Spain and Beetham.

"I know someone living in the area and he said he heard the gunshots, but he didn't come out.

"That area is a bad area, It's a place where all these guys from Port of Spain and Beetham and so on, they go up there and lock the area. They are from these gangs like Sixx and Seven and Nine and all these numbers they are calling."

Newsday also spoke with Destiny Primus, who remembered her last interaction with her father.

"I told him to bring back a muffin for me when he was coming home, because he knows I like a little snack to munch on.

"He wasn't a man to stay on the road too long, or go straying."

Contacted for comment, a police officer from the Eastern Division said Cumaca Road was a known squatting area, and people from different parts of the country had come to live there. He said police in the division were working to prevent further violence.

"It's not some lawless area where people can come in and do what they want. We are on the ground and we are keeping watch on what's going on.

"Valencia has a large squatting population where people from all over come to live so we are aware of that, but we are also doing our part."

Police from the Homicide Bureau of Investigations Region II are continuing enquiries.

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