THE void left by the disappearance of Air Guard trainee Shizelle Hernandez has left her only sibling with feelings of loss over their past and what the future might have been.
Davon, 32, still cannot fathom what has happened to Shizelle – the person with whom he considered his ‘twin’ and with whom he shared most of his memories and life-space.
Davon was 12 years old and Shizelle eight when their mother, Lucy Hernandez, died of cancer at the age of 38. Although the siblings were well cared for by their mother’s sisters, there was this feeling that it was ‘two of them against the rest of the world’, said Davon.
Then 11 years after his mother’s passing, Shizelle, 19, was snatched from his life and her mysterious disappearance and the unsolved case of who was responsible has left him feeling in a state of limbo. Davon was not in Trinidad when Shizelle went missing on June 18, 2011, as he was on regional missionary ministry with the Church of Jesus Christ with Latter-Day Saints.
For those six months, even with her schedule as an Air Guard trainee at the Teteron Barracks in Chaguarama, Shizelle had emailed him every day, and they spoke on the phone as often as possible.
In an interview with the Express two years ago, one of Shizelle’s aunts, Louise Boney, said she had returned to their Vega de Oropouche home on a break after a six-week training stint at the barracks.
Human Trafficking?
Shizelle went to the Sangre Grande Area Hospital to visit someone on the night she disappeared on June 18, 2011. To this day, not even Davon knows who that person was.
Camera footage obtained from the Sangre Grande Hospital showed Shizelle arriving at the hospital in a white panel van. She opened the door of the Accident and Emergency Department, looked in briefly, then entered. Shortly after she was again seen, this time exiting the facility. The time stamp on the CCTV cameras showed that Shizelle crossed Ojoe Road opposite the hospital at around 11 p.m.
However, that was as far as the camera could go.
In a telephone interview with the Express on Tuesday, Davon said he has considered that his sister may have fallen victim to human traffickers, but he knew she would have put up ‘a strong fight’. He said he and his sister had previously talked about crime, and after he had warned her against using headphones to listen to music while she exercised outdoors, she had stopped. They heeded and valued each other’s advice, he said.
‘Whoever she intended to visit at the Sangre Grande hospital, nobody knows,’ said Davon. The family still tries to wrap their head around who it could have been. Shizelle was wearing a green top, knee-length khaki pants and blue slippers at the time.
When family members did not see her at their home, they assumed she had returned to Teteron Barracks, Davon said. It was only two days later when members of the Air Guard showed up at Hernandez’s residence to enquire about her whereabouts, that they were put on alert that Shizelle was missing.
Not a quitter
Davon said he was in Barbados and she called and they spoke a few times that weekend. She told him she was going shopping for their father for Fathers’ Day and she was grateful to see the family that weekend.
‘It was a last-minute decision for her to get out of the barracks that weekend and she explained how much she had enjoyed the training. As a matter of fact she couldn’t stop talking about it. She was excited to learn even more skills. She was excited about all of her training and the challenges that were thrown at her. We talked about her going to start to train with firearms. She was always challenging herself to see what she would do next. Since we were growing up there was nothing I could do, that she could not. So although the training was tough she was thoroughly enjoying the challenges,’ said Davon.
The brother said Shizelle was not someone who would walk away from her life and never look back.
‘She had a lot going for her in every way possible at her age. She had worked at First Citizens bank but she believed there was more out there for her. She landed a job at the Social Welfare office. But her true joy was when she was successful to enter the Air Guard service. This was for her, she thought,’ said Davon.
Davon said they grew up in a closeknit, God-fearing, spiritual home first with their mother, and then his aunts and extended relatives, where prayer and family came first. With their mom, Lucy, they grew up at Rampersad Trace, Vega de Oropouche. Lucy was a full-time housewife following the birth of her children. When she passed on, the siblings were devastated.
‘At the beginning, it did seem like two of us against the rest of the world.
‘My mom taught us to be strong and resilient and how to live. But we did not know how to live without her in our lives. After our mom died, her sisters Denise and Louise Boney took care of us. Without her family, I do not know where we would have been’, he said.
He added: ‘Although we were four years apart, Shizelle and I were basically twins. We did everything together. We never fought. We climbed trees and played games, especially in the garden where we had spent a lot of time with our mom. Any lengths that a boy would do, she would as well. When our mom passed, we were even closer. We always tried to live a life that she would be proud of,’ he said.
Tearful farewell
The siblings attended both North Oropouche Roman Catholic school in Vega De Oropouche then Valencia High School. Davon remembered that Shizelle’s class excelled, and she fit right in because she had studied subjects ranging from sciences to business and even literature, with compulsory Mathematics and English. She went on to repeat O’levels at Manzanilla High School.
‘With her high level of discipline and organisation skills to manage her school studies, her extra-curricular activities and family life were admirable. She took her studies very seriously, had a schedule for everything. She was a member of a dance group and also engaged in theatre, drama and arts. She even found the time to be a playwright, was also a contestant of the Miss Sangre Grande beauty pageant. She always had her plate full but had fun with everything she did. The family went to Queen’s Hall in Port of Spain to see her perform as well as in Best Village for any events and Carnival in Sangre Grande. She loved everything she did,’ he said.
Davon recalled that it was very difficult for them to part ways even though temporarily when he was left the country for the church’s missionary duties. He recalled that she and other family members were in tears at the airport. ‘I remember her last words to me, ‘I don’t know why they are crying but I am because they are. I know you are going to do something great and for the benefit and blessing to others’,’ he said. Davon returned to Trinidad that week and joined the search parties for his sister.
However, there was no trace of Shizelle even after extensive police and Defence Force personnel combing through the forested areas in East Trinidad. Police detained and questioned several people for Shizelle’s disappearance, but no one was charged. ‘Everyone was involved. Police, army, Coast Guard, Air Guard, family, friends, strangers. They followed every tip, tracked every call and tried to cover all bases,’ the brother said.
Ransom hoax
Davon recalled that there was the added trauma after Shizelle’s disappearance of the family being contacted with a ransom demand that turned out to be a hoax.
The ransom call was made by a family from Tamana whom Shizelle’s family knew from church and attempted to capitalise on their situation.
Even worse in the following weeks, at least on five occasions when bodies were found, the family was called to the mortuary to assist with identification but hers was not among them.
Davon said ten years later the good memories and her loss are always with him.
‘I do not sense that she has passed. My family is faith-based and I am still hopeful that she will return to us. There are cases where people have been gone for ten years and come back home. She has every reason to want to come home,’ he said.
‘To anyone who has key information to help with the cases, come out and say it. This could be your sister, mother, friend anyone you know,’ he said.
Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers at 800-TIPS (8477), 555, 999, or send information to Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith by texting 482-GARY (4279) or to the TTPS app.
