Missing woman's boyfriend found dead in Tabaquite forest

THE body of Simeon Roopchand – boyfriend of administrative clerk Marissa Edwards – was found hanging from a tree in the Tabaquite forest on Saturday afternoon. Edwards, missing since September 18, is still unaccounted for.

Team captain of the Hunters' Search and Rescue Team, Vallence Rambharat, confirmed the discovery of Roopchand's body saying members of the team journeyed about a kilometre into the forest where they came across his body at 4 pm.

Roopchand was the last person Edwards was in company with before she went missing.

He was not seen or heard from since he was confronted by Edwards' family, the day after she went out with him and subsequently went missing. Edwards' relatives identified the 51-year-old PH taxi driver's body by the clothing he was wearing. Rambharat said a cutlass and cellphone were found near the man’s body.

Roopchand's car was found abandoned in Tabaquite near the entrance to the forest last Tuesday.

Rambharat said his team was searching near the car for Edward’s body as they suspect she too may have been killed. The surrounding area near to where Roopchand's car was found was searched twice.

On Saturday, a man who was walking through the forest found Roopchand's body and alerted the search and rescue team.

Roopchand and Edwards, an administrative clerk at the UWI’s Faculty of Medicine, left her John Eli Road, Freeport home on September 18. She told relatives she was going out with Roopchand, who she had been in an on-again off-again relationship for about two years.

At the time, the 39-year-old woman was wearing a black and purple dress, black sandals and black clutch purse.

Roopchand told relatives last Monday that he dropped Edwards off at the side of the highway just before midnight, because he had to get gas, and she wanted to get home.

Relatives became suspicious after they tracked her phone signal at a gas station in Couva at 4 am earlier that day. But before they could question him further, Roopchand left and was never seen or heard from again.

On Friday, relatives said they were still clinging to hope that Edwards could still be alive. On Sunday they said they continue to cling to hope.

“We still have hope, even if it reaches five per cent. Faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains, so we have hope and faith,” a relative said.