Valdeen Shears-Neptune
A Central man is pleading with Government to intervene in getting the body of his 28-year-old son released by Venezuelan authorities. Jodah Aron wants his son’s body so an autopsy can be done and to bury him.
Malone Aron, a construction worker, disappeared in waters at Los Iros beach on March 7. His family combed the coast from Los Iros to Icacos for days hoping to find his body. One week later, a fisherman told the family a body had washed ashore in nearby Venezuela.
The father said he was then contacted by the Erin police, who had also received a report from Venezuela. The discovery of his son’s body made headlines in a Venezuelan publication, he said. The father of four, said he positively identified his son’s body through photos shown to him by officers at the Erin police station.
A letter sent from the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs to the Venezuelan Embassy on the family’s behalf did not result in the matter being expedited, he said, and it is costing the family more than $20,000 in expenses, since another relative has been in Venezuela close to a month trying to get the body released.
“Losing my son was so painful and this is prolonging my family’s pain. We can’t even bury him. This is just so hard,” said Jodah.
His elder son, Michael, was expected to return to Trinidad after spending close to a month filing documents and attending Venezuelan court, in an attempt to get the body released. He is scheduled to return to Venezuela tomorrow, and hopes the paperwork will be processed by then.
The family is questioning the circumstances surrounding the death.
“If you ask anyone here, he did not like to bathe in the sea. He had long hair and he didn’t like the sea water in his hair at all. When we would go on family outings, even excursions, he was always the one not going in the water.
“He could swim, but when everyone going in, not he. Everybody who know him knows that. So I want answers and maybe the autopsy will give me that,” Jodah said. He said his son had been staying at a nearby beach house because of work. It was during a visit by friends he went to a beach lime and ended up dead, the grieving father said.