A prank call caused moments of anguish for an already grieving Albert Quashie yesterday, when he was told the body of his missing son Arnold had been found in the Mora Forest, Point Fortin. During a telephone interview with the T&T Guardian around 1.30 pm, the elderly Quashie paused to say he was getting a message that his son’s body had been found. “They found his body, they found his body,” Quashie repeated as he began sobbing. He later learned it was not true. “It is a real difficult thing I am going through,” he said. “I am a single parent. His mother died when he was five years old. I became mother and father for my children. I never left them. I stuck by them 100 per cent because I love them. I showed them love and taught them never to hurt anyone and to run from trouble.
“Now for somebody to come and snatch my only son when he making progress, it real hard and for somebody to come and tell me they find my son’s body, they making it worse.” Quashie, 29, of Salazar Trace, Point Fortin, was last seen on June 14, at the Point Fortin taxi stand. A taxi driver told the police two men approached him to hire his car, but he refused the job. He said Quashie, who worked for the Vehicle Maintenance Company (VMCOTT) and was plying his private Nissan Almera car for hire, accepted the job. Quashie’s crashed car was found abandoned on Field Road, Point Fortin, along with his slippers and car keys the next day. The car was taken to the forensic testing station at Cumuto, where it was dusted for fingerprints. No arrests have been made.
Quashie was critical of the police, saying yesterday was the first day they had searched. He said there were cameras in the area where his son went missing which could provide vital information if the police wanted to solve the case. “I got some information that my son’s shot was called from inside the prison because of a relationship he had with a woman. “The person told me the men did not want Arnold’s car, they wanted him and that he was supposed to die since Friday.” Quashie said he passed that information on to the police. His sister May Garraway yesterday pleaded with those who took her nephew to let the family know where he is, dead or alive. “If you have killed him, let us know where you put Arnold’s body, so we could bury him,” Garraway begged.