(Trinidad Express) Relatives of Dana Seetahal SC say they are starved for information from the police about the investigation into her murder, uncertain of whether any headway is being made, and fearful her killers will go free.
It has been more than eight months since the special State prosecutor was ambushed and assassinated on May 4 while driving along Hamilton Holder Street in Woodbrook just after midnight. Her family believes they are no closer to knowing who killed Seetahal, or why.
“We are just as lost as the rest of the population,” lamented Susan Francois, Seetahal’s younger sister, during an in-depth interview with the Express. Francois is also the director of the Financial Intelligence Unit.
Her elder brother, Kenrick Seetahal, echoed her frustration: “We cannot even conceive that Dana’s murder will be solved, it leaves us in limbo. The police have not contacted us, the lead investigators have not contacted us. We on our own.”
The relatives say they are forced to dwell in the realm of speculation, bombarded by all manner of theories floating in the public domain about the reasons why Seetahal was murdered.
“There’s all sorts of stories going around the place which, I mean, paints (sic) the most lurid pictures of all sorts of people from the top most echelons of society, in political circles, being involved in this thing,” said a disheartened Omar Seetahal, one of the younger brothers.
“And I would think that for the good of society, as well as the reputation of both the Government and everyone else, that they have a very keen interest in solving this murder and laying to rest all the stories and rumours that going around. It is mystifying…aggravating at the same time, that this matter has been unsolved.”
The siblings broke their silence on their sister’s murder during an interview at the family home on Wilkinson Street in Tunapuna, where Seetahal spent her childhood. They were surrounded by other siblings, nieces and nephews, friends and neighbours—20 persons in all.
“This matter has reached a point that something has to be said, we will not tolerate the situation perpetuating where the matter remains unsolved or seems to be shelved,” Omar stated.
The siblings said the police do not provide status updates on the progress of the investigation into Seetahal’s death. What little the family does know is gleaned from media reports or public statements by law enforcement personnel.
Their confusion is compounded by conflicting statements from high-ranking officials.
During a teleconference on US-Caribbean security co-operation in June last year, US Assistant Secretary of State, William Brownfield, described Seetahal’s death as a ““contract murder” with links to “organised crime”.
Minister of National Security Gary Griffith later told the host of TV6’s Morning Edition, Fazeer Mohammed, that it is wrong to classify Seetahal’s killing as a ‘hit’.
With little concrete information from the police, Seetahal’s grieving siblings said they are left not knowing what to believe.
“We really don’t know which one is true,” Kenrick said. “We believe that the investigators do not have any answers.”
Francois said the family learnt of the reported involvement of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) through a television news clip from Griffith.
The Seetahal siblings said they are compelled to initiate contact with the police, only to be given what they believe is the same vague assurance every time.
“I have called them, I’ve spoken to them, and they have given me a generic story: ‘The matter is very complicated and we are very close to a solution, perhaps at the end of the month you will see some action taking place’. And I have been told that since June last year,” complained Omar.
Equally etched into their memories of the day Seetahal died are the assurances from acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams that the Police Service would give the investigation “number one priority” with the intention of apprehending her killers “in the shortest period of time”.
That same day, the Prime Minister also issued a statement pledging the availability of “every resource of the law enforcement machinery of the State” to identify the assailants.
Today, those assurances ring hollow to Seetahal’s relatives.
“If all those resources were being put in place, it is amazing that they (law enforcement) have been so ineffective, you know?” Omar said pensively.
In fact, the family is questioning whether the police probe has stalled.
The relatives made it clear they are not condemning the Police Service, but are growing increasingly despondent without any sign of progress.
“None of us could never have imagined that going into nine months, nearly a year, that this case would still have been unsolved,” Francois said. “It is so ironic that a woman who had given so much and tried so hard to improve the criminal justice system should be just another murder statistic.”
Police making progress
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Glen Hackett, the lead investigator in the Seetahal murder case, insisted the police service is making “steady progress”, but apologised to the Seetahals for not contacting them more frequently.
“The investigation is at a very sensitive stage at this point in time and I wouldn’t go into the public realm with respect to an update,” he told the Express yesterday. “But what I can give, I can give the Seethaal family an undertaking that the investigation is ongoing, it has never wavered in its relentless pursuit of the persons who committed this dastardly act, and we are making steady progress with respect to this investigation and I will not allow it go cold at all.”
“I briefed them (Seetahal’s relatives) some time ago and after that I have not briefed them on the matter, but I understand their posture with respect to not being briefed and I do apologise for that. However, the investigation is ongoing, it is continuing albeit quietly, but effectively, getting all the necessary evidence that we can and we have been guided by the DPP in this context.”
Asked for an estimate of how much more time investigators need to conclude the probe, Hackett said, “I would not commit myself to a time and tell you a week, a month, but I express that sometime in the near foreseeable future that we will have some successful culmination.”
Hackett insisted the resources dedicated to finding Seetahal’s killers have not diminished since the investigation began.
