The two teenage sisters kidnapped and held in captivity for the past 19 days are under tight security at a public hospital and the Sunday Guardian has been told that their medical treatment is “at a sensitive stage right now.” Doctors have ordered a blanket discretion around the girls, filtering the information that reaches them, as they have not yet been told of the murders of their relatives and friend.
On October 28, a relative of 49-year-old Irma Rampersad reported that the woman, her two daughters, Jenelle, 19, and Felicia Gonzales, 17, Jenelle’s daughter, 18-month-old Shania Amoroso and family friend Felix Hernandez were missing. By November 8, some 12 days after the missing persons report was first filed, police found two bodies, later determined to be that of Hernandez and 18-month-old baby Amoroso.
On November 11, the badly-decomposed body of a woman, dressed in a grey night dress with one of her legs missing, was discovered tied to a tree in a forested area of Brasso Seco. Speaking with the media at a police press briefing yesterday, Deputy Commissioner of Police Harold Phillip confirmed that it was Rampersad. Doctors familiar with the case of the rescued Gonzales sisters say the two will continue to receive hydration, a slow introduction of food and counselling for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “Oddly enough, that is the most important thing right now,” one medical professional with knowledge of the case told the Sunday Guardian. “They will require counselling, which doctors have already requested for the two,” he said.
Doctors have also questioned why the Children Authority has not yet stepped into the matter as one of the girls is not a legal adult yet. “The girls are alive and are being medically examined,” Phillip said yesterday. Phillip also confirmed that the women have not yet been interviewed as they are still undergoing medical treatment. Joint army and police personnel are still deployed in Brasso Seco and environs following the rescue of the two women from a makeshift camp in the forested area. Police said there was an exchange of gunfire but no injuries and the kidnappers escaped through the dark forest. Phillip said he could not divulge any of the details or theories that the police are working on, but would only say that investigations are continuing.