Valdeen Shears-Neptune
Saturday made it five years since the disappearance of disc jockey Claude “Choko” Hospedales, who went missing after completing a gig at a bar in Santa Flora on October 29, 2011. His mother Maureen still clings to the hope that something concrete will come out of the ongoing search for human remains at a pond at Oilfield Road, Santa Flora.
She said the family is still praying for closure although police involved in the search exercise, which started in mid-September, are yet to visit her home.
She said just a few days ago she had to console Hospedales’ youngest daughter, now 16, who heard rumours that have been circulating in their village.
“She called me, she asked, ‘Mammy is it true, they find daddy bones?’ I had to tell her stop listening to village gossip, we have to wait to hear what the police saying,” she said.
Hospedales said she has not heard from the police although they began dredging the pond some weeks ago, so she sent a relative to visit the site last week, after taxi drivers and other neighbours asked her about reports that her son’s remains had been found.
“People real talking and we just decided to not wait any longer. I sent her there. She said she was stopped by an officer. When she told him who she was and the family’s concern with all the rumours circulating about clothes and maybe even bones being found at the pond, the officer told her that was not true. She said he told her the talk about the bones was false, pieces of clothing had been found, though, but had to be processed. He assured her that we will be the first to know if he is found there,” she said.
Hospedales said ever since her son, a father of three, went missing, the family has been hearing all kinds of rumours about his disappearance. Relatives said they have been told the police are looking for two people in connection with the case
“We have not been told anything concrete. We do know they are looking for one or two people in relation to him. We can only wait and hope,” a relative, who spoke anonymously, told the T&T Guardian.
The relative said evidence is being collected from the pond, as excavators have been deployed to dig up the slush and mud.
Investigations are continuing.