Even as relatives searched the Central area for 41-year-old mother of three, Hassina “Sarah” Khan, her killer was allegedly directing the police to her mutilated body.
Khan, who went missing on Tuesday, was buried in a shallow grave off a dirt road along Incogen Road, California, a stone’s throw away from the UTT campus, Pt Lisas, Couva.
She was positively identified by ex-husband, Nazmool Mohammed, her 17-year-old son Brandon, and another relative.
Mohammed, the father of her two eldest children, ages 20 and 17, confirmed that there was at least one visible stab wound to her neck. She also had a five-year-old daughter, fathered by a former boyfriend.
“We saw her partially, she had a stab to her neck, but we don’t know if there were more cuts. She was kinda covered up with dirt. This real hard for her children, we had still hoped we would find her alive. We were looking down Orange Valley searching, asking people if they had seen her, when my daughter get the call. I knew it was bad when I see she collapse,” he said.
Relatives, including, Khan’s 66-year-old mother Jean, her four sisters and four brothers, gathered on the scene.
Crying uncontrollably, Khan’s daughter disembarked from a marked vehicle when officers came out of the bush and asked for a shovel. She fainted and had to be revived by relatives. This seemed to set off a chain reaction, as two of Khan’s sisters, overcome with grief, began wailing.
“This man realise you can do anything in this country and get away with it. If he did get lock up one time for all the reports she made, it might have made a difference, he might have been afraid to make jail (again) and think twice bout killing my mother,” shouted Khan’s distraught son.
According to acting Supt Yusuff Gaffar, police visited the area “based on enquiries and the body was discovered.” Gaffar added that he was not at liberty to give any more information until the forensics personnel arrived and shared their findings.
Relatives, though, speculated that a suspect, who has been in police custody since Tuesday, had directed them there and was in a marked vehicle at the scene.
According to newspaper reports, Khan went missing after a restraining order was taken out against an ex-lover on Monday.
Khan, of Dow Village, Couva, was last seen alive on Tuesday morning near her workplace at Universal Foods Limited in Point Lisas. Additionally, Khan’s daughter told Trinidad Guardian she had been seen walking along the road, arguing with the man.
Relatives, on the scene, could be heard loudly lamenting Khan’s decision to continue on speaking terms with a man she allegedly shared a five-year relationship with. The last two years, said Mohammed, Khan had separated from the man, who refused to accept her decision to leave.
Valdeen Shears-Neptune