A supermarket employee whose drink was spiked with poison by a disgruntled worker wants the police to speed up their investigation and catch her attacker who has now gone into hiding.
Krystal Seebarath, 26, a supervisor at Jumbo Foods Supermarket, Barataria, yesterday says she relives the trauma every night and is afraid for her life.
Nine days ago, she said, she drank from a bottle spiked with a poison at her workplace.
The suspect, a 24-year-old man, is believed to be hiding out either in the Morvant, Barataria or Beetham areas.
Seebarath, who began working at the supermarket last March, was last month brought in as a supervisor of the meat section, since the manager and other senior officials suspected that workers were stealing meat. Most of the workers, except for one, were transferred out of that branch, including a security officer.
However, while there Seebarath said she encountered several problems and asked to be moved but her request was denied as her bosses told her she was doing a great job.
Last Tuesday at about 11.30 am, Seebarath said she was having a drink and left it unattended for a few minutes as she had to go to another department located on the upper floor of the supermarket.
She said when she returned to the meat section she took a sip of her drink but quickly spat it out as she found it tasted strange.
“I swallowed a little bit. I didn't think that I was poisoned at that point. I thought the drink had spoiled just like that. Before I knew it I started vomiting and was on the ground with excruciating abdominal pains,” Seebarath said.
An ambulance was contacted. However, according to a supermarket official, it never arrived for Seebarath. She had to be taken via the supermarket's transport vehicle to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, where she was treated.
Seebarath said she was in a state of shock to hear that someone tried to kill her.
She added: “This had to be premeditated against me and this is something I cannot believe. I was told that checks were made to see if anything was captured on tape but when they checked they saw that the wires had been disconnected.
“This is something horrific like out of a movie and it happened to me. I am so shocked and scared,.
“When the workers were caught they all begged for their jobs, including the same guy who poisoned (allegedly) me and he was given a chance but I really didn't know it would have reached to this.”
Seebarath expressed disappointment in the T&T Police Service for the way it has so far handled her case, including its failure to refer her to the Victim and Witness Support Unit for professional counselling.
She said over the weekend into Monday she had been trying to reach the investigating officer, PC Mitchell, in connection with giving an official statement. She says that all she wanted was justice.