Minerva Gaskin

The trail of suffering that was left behind by her disappearance then is no less now to her loved ones, who still feel empty from the sudden and inexplicable separation.

Minerva, a retired surveyor, 65, was last seen leaving the Licensing Office at Wrightson Road, Port of Spain, on July 23, 2009.

Police confirmed that Minerva completed her transaction as her image was captured on closed-circuit cameras at the Government office. But what happened after she left the office is a mystery.

She was expected to travel via a maxi-taxi home to her home at Vanda Street, Macoya, where she lived with two of her children. She never made it.

Her sister, Shannon Nimchan Parasoo, who spoke with the Express this week, explained that Minerva lived near the Priority Bus Route and used the convenience of the maxi taxi service to travel to and from Port of Spain.

Minerva had sold a vehicle and went to complete the transfer paperwork with the new owner and her mechanic of 19 years. There was nothing else on her agenda for that day.

She was expected to return home by midday.

‘She was a straightforward person and a home-body. She would not have stopped to visit anywhere or shop. She was a retiree and it would have been home and back.

‘We had asked the maxi-taxi drivers if they saw her, but none of them did. I always had a feeling that she saw someone she knew and she took a drop to return to her home. I am not certain, but can’t think of any other explanation as to what happened with her,’ said Shannon.

Happy memories

Minerva was born into a Presbyterian home in San Fernando, the eldest of seven children. She lived with her family at Mac Gillivary Street, Mon Repos, until the ambitious teenager moved to Port of Spain to be closer to her workplace in the Ministry of Finance.

‘When she reached about 18, she went to work in town but returned on weekends. She got married and had children, they lived with us in San Fernando until they entered kindergarten. She was never a person to lime or fete. Only if there was a musical concert at the Centre of Excellence, she would attend. She divorced when she was around 60 years old and just kept to herself,’ Shannon said.

Minerva was such a simple, peaceful and humble person that she had often told her family when she died she did not want a large funeral.

‘She said if I die in the morning, bury me in the evening. I don’t want plenty of people around. Well, we never even got that,’ said Shannon.

The sister recalled the happier times at Christmas with Minerva and their large family gatherings.

She said Minerva was always supportive and caring to the sick or hospitalised family members. ‘You could always count on her to be at your hospital bedside or to help you recover,’ she said.

The siblings stayed close, and Shannon had spoken with Minerva the week before she disappeared. ‘She was collective and everything. We spoke over the phone during the week and she was normal,’ the sister said.

Then on the night of July 23, 2009, Shannon received the phone call that Minerva was missing, and her son was enquiring if his mother was at relatives in San Fernando, but she was not. There was never a call for ransom. Her possessions at her home were intact and untouched in her bedroom, said the sister.

Family and friends set up search parties, and police investigators yielded nothing.

The security camera footage from the Licensing Office captured Minerva up to the moment she stepped out of the office and onto the street.

Back in 2011 near the two-year mark of Minerva’s disappearance, Shannon had told the Express Minerva’s son was still unable to sleep well at nights, as he kept hoping his mother would turn up on their doorstep.

‘If a dog barks, he would get up and look out the window to see if his mother has come home. His three sisters were badly affected too, but they are just trying to move on and live their lives,’ Shannon had said.

And after two years when police detectives’ contact with the family dwindled, a private investigator was hired and that too yielded no leads to her.

Religious belief

Another relative, who did not want to be named, said there was a mutual suspicion by the family that Minerva’s religious belief led her astray.

She had become a member of a 20th-century religious organisation that was partly based on yogic elements.

One of the beliefs of the organisation is spiritual liberation, and that one’s soul could travel to other planes of reality.

‘She would talk about the spirits, and all kinds of things we didn’t understand. Her children tried to get her out of it. She never took them on. She never wanted to leave whatever that organisation was.

‘She used to travel from her home at Macoya once a month to attend a meeting in South. No idea how or why she joined but her children and no other family are members. We do not know if it was because of this belief that she just left,’ said the relative.

The family were confused over her disappearance then, as they are now.

‘I wonder if she is alive. But when they found the graveyard of human bones in Aripo (after the murder of Andrea Bharatt), it crossed my mind that there might be closure for us.

‘The police had taken a sample of her hairbrush and it is supposed to be in storage at the Forensic Science Centre. Even if they robbed her, we would have found her somewhere. But there was never a trace-not a wallet, handbag or anything. No one had interfered with her bank account. We took the police advice not to close it off to see if anyone would try to claim it, but no one ever did,’ she said.

‘Sometimes this just tears me apart and there is nothing you can do about it. I joined a missing person group on Facebook and might chat a little with other people who are going through the same experience as our family,’ she said.

The family is dependent on the public to tell them anything that they can to help find Minerva.